Cirque Berserk
by Poisoned Scarlet
Summary: Non PP Compliant. "How should I scare you?" After 5 years, Circus Gothica revisits Amity Park. Only this time, Freakshow isn't the one in charge...
1. Chapter 1

_**Disclaimer: **I do not own Danny Phantom or any of the italicized dialogue added to this work of fiction. I make no profit of this. _

_**Cirque Berserk  
**.Poisoned Scarlet._

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_**A/N: **Alright, I know the episode 'Control Freaks' is the last episode in Season 1 of DP. But I want you guys to pretend that Season 2 and 3 happened already except for the very last episode of DP: Phantom Planet. So, basically, everything is canon except for the final episode of DP and I'm making my own story starting from the last few minutes of Control Freaks. Just replace Phantom Planet with Control Freaks and delude yourself into thinking that DP never, ever ended! XD_

_The dialogue you will see highlighted in italics was taken directly from the episode. I did not make that up and that is the only thing I have copied. I disclaim it as well - to Butch Hartman, 'cause he's a freakin' genius. Though I do admit that, since Danny saved Sam at the last moment, I had to make up my own alternate ending.  
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_**1  
Remembering**_

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_She stood at the edge of the tremulous train, staring desperately at her best friend. He stood firmly on the rattling train, holding the bright scarlet staff in his hands, flickering his red eyes to and fro Freakshow and the magically glowing scepter._

"_Very good, drone," Freakshow said smoothly enough, "Now, bring me my staff. Come on, bring it!" he prompted mockingly, holding his gloved hand out expectantly, that same awful grin on his powdered face. _

_He stared at the staff in his hand wretchedly, unable to go against the force preventing him from deciding himself but being dragged into the allure of the staff regardless. He looked towards her, almost in dazed confusion. _

"_Fight it, Danny!" she pushed forward, standing in front of Freakshow, staring into his abnormal red eyes. "He's not holding the crystal ball anymore. You are!" she said urgently._

_She was pushed away harshly, stumbling towards the edge of the train, looking down and getting a sense of vertigo as she gazed at the rocky, uneven floor. Freakshow sent her a sneer and looked back at Danny, who was holding the staff with a vice-like grip._

"_Silence!" Freakshow commanded, "Obey me, ghost. Give me my staff. Come on." he tried again, wiggling his fingers, raising his brows._

"_I saw you up on that high wire!" she screamed, directing his attention back to her. "You were fighting the whole time. Fight him now, Danny!" she took a step forward, seeing something flicker through his scarlet eyes. "You're not just a ghost. FIGHT HIM!"_

_He ground his teeth and clenched his eyes shut. His grip on the staff was neck-breaking as he desperately tried to gain control of his will. "Quiet!" he shouted, strangled. "All of you!" he shut his eyes against the invisible force inside him. "I need to think!"_

"_Stop her!" Freakshow commanded, pointing at her, sending her a dark sneer. "NOW!"_

"_Well, it's the crystal ball, or your friends, Danny!" she decided, courageously, trying not to look at the fifty foot drop just behind her. "Your choice!" _

_Lydia creeped up towards her, baring her teeth as her shorter, slightly fuller, partner glared menacingly at her through bright red eyes. He lashed out and she backed up, dodging a lethal swipe from Lydia, who only stretched her lips into a feral grin._

_Then she stopped breathing._

_Her combat boot stepped into thin air. She could not stop herself in time and soon she felt the world tilt on its axis. Her eyes swooped past Tucker, who was being restrained by the bulkier ghost, looking horrified and then to Danny, who had a white gloved hand over his eyes, teeth grinding in indecision._

"_I didn't mean that to be so literal!" she manged to scream, air whizzing past her, a dreadful, stomach-turning burn surging through her body. "DANNY!" was the last thing she heard herself scream before she closed her eyes._

"_Sam! NO!!" she heard someone cry. _

_But it wasn't Danny, she noticed quite sorrowfully. It wasn't Danny; in fact, as she rapidly fell, she could see his brightly glowing body still in the same position as she last saw him. Stiff, confused and holding the staff in his hand tightly._

_It was Tucker who had called after her._

_She noticed another figure being thrown. She saw with growing terror that it was Tucker. They were both falling. And Danny? Danny was still standing on the rumbling train, seemingly oblivious to everything around him as she hit ground with a sickening crunch and... sunk?_

_**-**_

"Sam! Hey, Sam!" a voice lulled her from her deep sleep. She could hear something screech against metal and she quickly realized it was her curtains being puled apart. The steady stream of bright sunlight that spilt through the window was proof enough.

She groaned and slapped a hand over her eyes. "Ugh..."

"Wake up, Goth Girl," a female voice said, annoyed. "It's time for another day of college life, girl, so get the hell out of bed!"

Sam Manson opened her violet eyes to see Valerie Gray standing at the foot of her bed, looking smug dressed in black jeans and a tight lavender blouse. She had her usually curled hair in a pony tail and she wore the usual light make up. On her shoulder was her book bag and she sent her a risen brow, arms crossed in an expectant manner.

"Val?" she croaked, her voice still heavy from sleep. "What time is it? What are you doing here?"

"It's currently seven am and what do you mean what am I doing here?" she snorted, obviously displeased by her answer. "To wake you up for school, silly!"

"School. Ugh." She propped herself up on her elbows, rubbing the sand out of her eyes. "I will never be free from that torture, will I?"

"Nope!" she chirped too happily. "Now get up and get dressed. You have half an hour—I expect you to be ready to go by then." She strode to the door, yanking it open. "I'll be downstairs with Tucker when your ready."

"Wait, Tucker's here?" Sam questioned, quizzical.

"Yes," Valerie replied exasperatedly. "He is here and we will both drive to Amity State College together in Tuck's brand new BMW!" She gushed, grinning.

"Oh," was all she managed as her friend shut the door and left her to bask in the deafening silence. Rustling out of her sheets, she made her way to the bathroom.

She clicked on the lights and avoided glancing at herself in the full-body mirror ahead.

As she stepped into the shower, she wondered back to her dream. It wasn't surprising that she had dreamt of that night. She had been dreaming about that day since it happened, five years ago. But usually it was more gruesome. She wouldn't land in the stream like she really did but rather on the rocky floor. Danny would be looking over the speeding train, grinning, as he threw Tucker off as well, when she knew fairly well Tucker had been thrown by the muscled ghost.

But she hadn't had any of those dreams recently. They had stopped in year three of his so-called disappearance.

She stepped out of the shower, wiping the steam from the mirror and gazing at her wet, black hair. Then she gazed straight into her own eyes.

They seemed... duller than before, she noticed nonchalantly.

Her hair was the same length—if not shorter. It reached her chin evenly though she ditched the mini pony tail and resorted to leaving her hair alone. She had dyed one of her bangs a bright red colour and no one asked why. After all, she had some rather bad memories regarding that specific colour. She still wore a plaid skirt, only much shorter and with fishnet leggings instead. Her combat boots reached her thigh rather than her knee and her shirt was a simple stark black tank top with a bright red splatter of faux blood running across her breast.

She quickly pulled on her set of boots—combat style but zipping up all the way to her mid-thigh. The laces were killer, she decided two days after she bought them. But it didn't matter; she loved them regardless. She combed through her raven black hair, carefully avoiding the red streak before tying it back. She let the red streak of hair, which was longer than the rest, flow freely.

She applied her regular amount of eyeliner—which meant she put it on heavily. Along with powder, plain lip gloss and some mascara.

She stood in the middle of her room. The room she had rented in a rather fancy apartment complex; after all, her parents refused to let her live in anything less than excellent. The complex held a pool, a lounging bar downstairs, along with a perfect view of Amity Park's infamous forest.

It was centered near downtown—which meant she was in walking-distance of several of the most hottest shops the city had to offer.

She wasn't very impressed, having grown up in a practically 'Whatever-you-want-you-get' environment.

Not much can surprise her nowadays, she noticed idly.

"SAM!" Valerie's voice cut through her reverie. "You done yet?"

"Yeah!" she replied, driving her thoughts away. "I'm coming down right now! Just wait up!" She grabbed the messenger bag stapled with band patches, rough graffiti writing, and studs of all kind. Though there was one patch on her bag that stood out from the rest; one that no one dared to ask about.

A simple DP patch.

She hurried into the living room, finding Tucker playing with his brand new, state-of-the-art, PDA with Valerie checking her make up right beside him.

Tucker hadn't changed at all. He still wore that obnoxious red beret only he lost the geeky glasses and stuck with contacts. He also decided, after much argument, that wearing a long-sleeved, faded yellow shirt wasn't very appealing for the ladies. He settled on a rather colorful flannel, short-sleeved, shirt and traded his military green trousers for gray.

"Oh, Sam, guess what!?" Tucker exclaimed excitedly, "DOOM 2.0!" he flashed her his PDA's shiny screen to show her the brand-new game counsel. "I must have it!"

"Own it." Sam replied blandly. "It's a drag. Don't but it—DOOM 1.0 was _way_ better than DOOM 2.0." she walked towards the kitchen and opened her fridge, raising a brow at her best friend's gawking. "What?"

"You... You... You..." he stuttered, disbelievingly "_You own it and you never told me about it?!_" he shrieked, ignoring his girlfriend's exasperated shake of her head. "Me? You're best friend in the whole wide freakin' world?"

Sam smirked. "Hey, I was going to tell you but I kept getting distracted. Sorry about that." she glanced pointedly at Valerie, who decided to watch the two friend's bicker in pleased silence. "I totally finished it in, like, one week though! It took me months to even get past Level 9 in DOOM 1.0!" She took out a curvy bottle of yogurt and ripped the seal off. "I suggest you get _Terror V_. It has cooler graphics." She downed the drink.

Tucker looked skeptical. "There's only one way to find out." He stared blankly at the door leading to Sam's bedroom. "Gotta try it out for myself!" he literally beamed and made a dash for the door.

"Watch out for the—"

"YEOUCH!"

"—AC cord." she finished, smiling wryly as Tucker shook his head and got up, dusting his pants before rushing into her room and letting out an ecstatic "I LOVE SAM'S CONNECTIONS!!" once he found the video game.

She only chuckled, throwing the bottle of yogurt away.

"Alright, enough chat. It's time to go," Valerie interrupted, grabbing her arm and tugging her out.

"Wait, what about Tucker?"

"What about him?" she questioned back, almost suspiciously.

"Won't he come with us?" she elaborated. "I mean, doesn't he have to attend class? Like the rest of us." she added dryly.

She usually didn't see Tucker at her home. They kept their school life mostly private considering he went to a completely different college: one just two hours away from Amity Park. A big shot, nice and new, only-for-certified-computer-geniuses, type of college.

Needless to say, Tucker lived quite far away. At least one hour away from her own apartment though they hung out regularly and continued to lunch at the Nasty Burger at least four times a month.

Valerie shook her head, a small smile on her face. "Tuck attended several college-level courses during high school so he doesn't have to go until four in the evening nowadays. He decided to take the night course since he only has to attend four classes in total."

Sam nodded, remembering. "He applied himself in school after... that."

There was a small pause.

They didn't talk about _him _a lot_. _Danny Fenton, she meant. Valerie had, in the end, never figured out who was Danny Phantom really was. They let her believe he was simply another ghost; a special, powerful ghost. Though they were relieved she never put two and two together—since Danny Phantom disappeared the instant Danny Fenton 'moved'. They _had_ told her that Danny Fenton moved to California to study Ghost Psychology and gain a major in Physics so he could live his dream of working for NASA.

In reality, he just left with Freakshow.

But she suspected more; given Tucker's nervous attitude whenever she brought it up. She didn't question it though—she liked hating him.

It was easier and it hurt less.

Though the Fenton's were blissfully unaware of this for a while. He went missing for several days, Sam recalled, but he did come back. He had enough will to come back and tell his parents not to worry; that he was going to study abroad in the subject of Ghost Psychology (much like his sister). They, of course, had let him. They respected his decisions. He would finish his school elsewhere. He would be in the 'safe' hands of Vlad.

Now Sam did not know how Vlad had gotten involved. Freakshow was the one responsible for what had happened but somehow, someway, he did. Because that was the only way the Fenton's would ever let their youngest son go so easily.

Sam was outraged when she had found out.

He left without even one lousy good-bye.

But she shouldn't have been so surprised.

He also let her—and Tucker—fall to their deaths.

But, then again, she thought wretchedly, he was under a powerful mind control device.

She didn't usually think about that; it made things much simpler when she just thought about it the very, well, _simple _way: he let them both fall to their deaths and he did nothing to stop them. Rather, he followed Freakshow and his minions and was now entertaining Goths everywhere and basically robbing every valuable item he could get his grubby hands on.

See? Better.

None of that 'ulterior motives' crap she used to spend hours on end thinking about, feeling horrible and hurt, because she needed to look at it from 'his point of view'. Because she was too smart not to.

Nope. She stopped torturing herself that way three years ago.

As the two girls walked down the winding staircase and headed towards the parking lot, Valerie took out Tucker's brand new BMW's keys and unlocked the doors with a press of a button.

"C'mon!" she urged, sliding into the leather seats and touching the shiny wheel. "One of the best things Tucker ever invested in!" she squealed, turning it on and backing up as Sam buckled herself in.

"At least he's got good taste," she mused, eying Valerie shortly afterwards. "You chose it out for him, huh?"

"Duh!"

The two girls laughed as they sped down the street and towards their college.

They both never noticed the giant billboard that read in some rather creepy font: _CIRCUS GOTHICA _with a very familiar, handsome, man smirking sinisterly right besides the glowing words; his bright emerald eyes flashing dangerously and his black drag trench coat accentuating his extremely pale skin. His hand, you would notice, held a glowing bright green orb, which seemed to hypnotize you if you stared too long.

Right below the letters, it read:

_Returning to Amity Park October twentieth through thirty one. Get your tickets now and experience the brighter side of dark._

No, they never did notice...


	2. Chapter 2

_**Cirque Berserk**_

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_**2  
Knowing**_

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Tucker Foley stared at the scratch-free, bright, screen of his PDA with uncharacteristic dull eyes. Before, those eyes had been lit as if he had found out where the stash of Christmas presents were hidden. But now, after much thinking, he decided that being excited wasn't the best emotion to express.

After all, Sam didn't know a thing of what had happened between he and Danny that fateful day. For all she knew, she probably thought he was the one who dragged her out of the cold stream and laid her down beside him before passing out from exertion. In reality, that wasn't the way it happened.

Many things happened that night.

Danny had explained himself, which was probably why he wasn't as furious and hurt as he was suppose to be.

Because he knew the truth.

But he knew that knowing the truth while your best friend deluded herself into believing lies wasn't always the best thing in the world.

The words blinked back at him on the screen: _Circus Gothica featuring The Goblin Brothers, The Duke Girls, Him and Her, and the one and only DANNY PHANTOM!_

Now, all of Amity Park would not recognize him, he was sure of this. They never did acknowledge the alias 'Danny Phantom' during the time Danny was actually present. They had just resorted to calling him 'Inviso-Bill', which they still referred him as; though now that name hardly passed anyone's lips nowadays.

He had been gone for approximately five years, why should anyone ever remember him?

The town had over-flowed with ghosts just days after Danny's departure. And for a while it had been nearly impossible to even walk five steps outside your home without a ghoul appearing out of basically nowhere and scaring you witless. The number of ghosts that escaped from the Ghost Zone soon dwindled when Sam took control, along with a few other self-proclaimed Ghost Hunters.

She trained with Valerie as an _official_ Ghost Hunter and took the place of Danny Phantom with some remorse —after all, Tucker was very much aware of the goth girls attraction towards the clumsy, raven haired (snow haired) boy (or halfa, to be technical).

She eventually surpassed Valerie in Ghost Hunting.

That happened one year after the initial training. And Tucker knew Sam pushed herself harder than any one could consider healthy. She would drag herself home, sweaty and injured, and collapse on her bed or even couch when she couldn't make the walk up the stairs. The next day, her wounds would most likely be infected and he would be there, sterilizing them, ignoring the anxious flip of his stomach when she didn't even bat an eye as he stitched her up.

Most of her wounds were gaping and raw.

He never asked her how she got them and she never told him – but he had the sneaking suspicion she trained with the more friendly ghouls to hone her skills. That in itself was a risk. Ghosts had no obligation to her health. If you happened to befriend one and ask them for a favor, rare would be the time they would fulfill it without an ulterior motive or without completely slinking out of the said deal after a measured span of time. They enjoyed human misery.

He often found himself wondering that – if she did ask a ghost to help her with her training – what had she offered in return?

The possibilities sometimes chilled him.

His cell phone vibrated in his pocket.

"Hello?"

"_... Tuck?" _

His eyes widened to the size of saucers.

"D-D—"

"_Yeah, it's me, Tucker. Long time no talk? Ehehe..." _

Things just got a whole lot more difficult, concluded Tucker, as he continued his strange conversation with the boy he hadn't seen in roughly five years.

* * *

"Um, guys?" Sam started blandly, before growling: "What the hell do you think you are doing!?"

She crossed her arms and scowled, staring expectantly towards Valerie and Star, who were both viciously fighting to grab a hold of what looked like a ticket to a movie but in the end just managing to stomp all over it and get it dirty.

"She, like, totally took _my _ticket!" complained Star, pointing accusingly at Valerie, who was dusting herself off with a deep frown marring her usually clear dark skin.

"You mean _our _ticket," she replied, annoyed. "That ticket can admit three people, Star, so it's for you, me and Sam here!"

"What ticket?" queried Sam, raising a brow, looking slightly interested. "And for what?" She couldn't deny that she feared for her mental health: she absolutely refused to be guilt-tripped into going to some girly, flashy and _expensive _show just to watch some sickly thin women pose in extravagant, overly-decorated and _colorful, _clothes.

She admitted some of the clothing lines they showed were... good.

But she would pick spikes over sequences, any day.

Valerie opened her mouth to answer when Star slapped a manicured hand over it, giggling madly. "Oh, my Gawd! You are so totally gonna love me after this, Samantha! And, no, it's not a fashion show if you're wondering!"

Sam was starting to feel a little excited—she didn't even correct Star for calling her by her full name. It wasn't everyday your two best girl friends planned something for you that you would actually _enjoy_. "Is it something dark? Scary? _Haunted_?" she prompted, her usually bored violet eyes lighting up like a child's.

Star grinned back at her, "It's even _better_ than that!"

Now she felt extremely excited; she was even starting to have a hard time suppressing a grin. "Oh, what is it, what is it, what is it!" She stepped forward, straining to get a glance at the ticket. Perhaps that would clue her in to where they were going to take her. But Star snatched it from Valerie's hands and stuffed it into her back pocket, wagging a finger at Sam, who scowled back.

"Ah, ah, ah! Patience, patience, miss Manson," she imitated a certain college professor that had the habit of reprimanding Sam for every little thing she did. It was probably because of the way she dressed—though her work wasn't less than stellar.

She remembered screeching: "This is a strict violation of my freedom of expression!" when she was dragged out of the classroom by two security guards.

She had stood up to the teacher in a mature manner – by pointing at him and viciously growling that he had no right to deny her education just because she wore ripped biker gloves and a leather jacket matched along with a short, black skirt and some rather heavy looking steel-toed boots.

All in all, the professor had been scared out of his pants and immediately rung up security.

She still believed that she didn't look _that _intimidating.

Just... tough-looking.

Sam cleared her mind of that unfortunate event in her life. "Ha, ha, way to bring him up at a time like this," she mumbled, pushing her bright red bang away from her eye.

"Oh, pish posh!" Star grinned, "This will totally make up for everything Paulina and I have done to you and your dorky friends!" she chirped airily.

Valerie face-palmed herself.

Sam smiled wryly. "I sure hope so, Star."

It was quite odd how Star and Sam managed to become the friends they were. If you asked Sam, she would tell you it all started during their Junior year, when Paulina had gotten terribly envious of Star's boyfriend; the handsome new transfer student from Japan. She had frankly asked Star to give him up because he obviously didn't deserve her.

Star was offended to a very personal level when Paulina had said this. Or so she told Sam and Valerie shortly after finding her sobbing in the girls second-floor bathroom, who listened with disbelief but couldn't help but to think that Paulina would do just that. She was just that shallow, what could they say?

And, Sam added at that time, the new Japanese transfer student resembled Danny Phantom with his bleached white hair and dark forest green eyes.

She automatically hated him, you could say. If the menacing glares and awful attitude meant anything.

But the general point of Star's three hour long dramatic heartbreak and friend-break rant was: Paulina managed to seduce Kyohei, the aforementioned transfer student, into leaving her for the Latina. After all, Paulina was very beautiful – and a master manipulator, much to Sam's dismay.

A heartbroken Star was not a very pleasant Star, Sam took note that day, when she ditched her Gym class and found a very distraught Star sobbing helplessly inside the girls second floor bathroom. Of course, she couldn't just _leave _her there. She looked absolutely miserable so Sam, begrudgingly, took it upon herself to ask the dreaded question.

"_Are you alright?"_

"_WHAT DOES IT LOOK LIKE?" Pause. Rising sob."N-N-N-NO!" _

That resulted in skipping out on her English and History classes to comfort a very distressed Star, who only seemed to cry harder when Paulina entered the bathroom in a flourish of silky smooth black hair and clear skin; smelling like male colon and with some lip-gloss smudged at the edge of her full lips.

Sam immediately deduced that Paulina had, once again, taken one of Star's boyfriend's. Or done something horrible to her. Again. It wasn't _so _hard to figure out; Paulina had the tendency of treating her close friends like absolute _nothing._

She also saw Valerie strut in right after and give her a wide-eyed stare since she was holding Star against her chest and looking quite gloomy while at it. It was a comical sight, but the fact that Star had tears streaming down her face subdued the humorous situation.

She supposed that was when the whole "Paulina isn't your friend—she's a stupid bitch who uses you over and over again!" conversation had started. Sam blew off quite a lot of steam in _that_ particular conversation. She ended up ditching all her classes that day, along with Valerie, just to rant out all the negative feelings she harbored for the foul girl.

It felt good to talk smack about the girl who literally had Danny wrapped around her finger at one time.

"Come on, girls," Valerie said, snapping Sam out of her reverie once more. She had a talent for dragging Sam out of her thoughts. "Lunch is over. Time to get this last class over and done with!" She stood up, smiling at Sam, who she noticed looked rather gloomy—the bad kind of gloomy, not the usual gloomy she was so accustomed to.

"I'll see you two later, I've got Psych right now." she called, waving halfheartedly as Star rambled on and on about the thing they were going to take her to. She just really, really hoped it would be something cool: like a dark festival or perhaps a—

_No. _She chastised herself just in time. _No. Don't go there. _

Circuses.

She absolutely loathed them.

And, no, it had nothing to do with a certain halfa runaway.

Meanwhile...

"She absolutely loves them!" Star said confidently, waving the admit 3 ticket in front of Valerie's face smugly. "This will totally be, like, mega pay back to what I did to her and her geek friend's during our high school days!"

"Circus Gothica?" Valerie echoed, "Sounds... like her kind of place." She imagined black balloons and creepy, scary-looking clowns roaming the area as if in search of fresh meat. She shivered at the thought – definitely her place.

"Yeah! And, oh my God, I totally hear that, like, the guy in charge is, like, totally hot hot hot!" she gushed, eyes twinkling as she delved deeper into her fantasy. "Sam needs a guy and who better than a creepy, hot, guy who runs an equally creepy circus? And he's, like, nineteen! Like us! Supposedly, they say that he's like a scientist or something but I still think he's a _mad_ scientist, you know? Like in the cartoons—not that I watch any cartoons but—"

"Let me guess," Valerie cut off bluntly, "You want to hook them up."

"Yeah!" she said, amazed. "How did you know? Are you psychic? Why didn't you tell me, Val, I thought we were _friends! _Wait, if you're psychic then can you—"

Valerie shook her head and chuckled warmly, patting Star on the shoulder as she entered her class. "No, Star, I am not psychic. You're just really predictable."

"Aw—hey, that was mean, Val!"

* * *

Tucker flopped onto Sam's bed and laid on her multitude of pillows, glumly staring at her pitch black ceiling. Over the past few years, Sam had gotten darker than dark. She had completely and totally gone Goth, though he had no idea that how she acted when _he _was still around was actually pretty tame compared to how she acted now.

She looked like a drop out in every way, shape and form. She looked as if her parents had passed away in a gruesome, bloody, way at a young age. And she dressed as if she were to attend a funeral. It would surprise a person to see a small smile or even a grin on her face.

She would usually grumble about narrow-minded people when that happened.

And yet—he mused, torn between feeling happy for her and feeling sad—she was already attending college to study Medicine and Nursing, already haven taken a year in Administrative Business so she could slowly work her way up top Chief Nurse – as she had planned during her Senior year at Casper High.

All in all, Sam had it made. She was acing her classes and he had no doubt she would make a wonderful nurse (dark and broody but definitely good).

His eyes drifted to the black screen of the plasma TV that hung against the wall. He dwelled on the conversation he had had with a close friend not too long ago...

"_I'm going back to Amity Park, Tuck. I finally did it. I defeated Vlad and Freakshow; I used my parents old invention—the Fenton Splitter to divide Vlad's alter ego."_

"_You mean..."_

"_Yeah, Vlad's now one hundred percent human. His ghost self is more obsessive and diabolical than his human counterpart that's for sure. But, his human self—he's getting better.... well, at least he doesn't hit on mom anymore."_

"_What about his ghost self? What did you do with him?"_

"_'Sent him back to the Ghost Zone and locked him up in his own realm. He won't be able to escape unless... someone let's him out. Which I doubt, considering everyone practically hates him. He's very...er, dominating?"_

"_That's putting it lightly, dude."  
_

"_Yeah, well, now I'm coming back and..."_

"_Sam."_

"_.... S... Sam... she, uh, how is, um, is she, what I mean to say is—"_

"_She's cool, dude, she's cool. She's still goth and still an ultra-what-something—"_

"_Ultra-Recyclo Vegetarian."_

"_Yeah, that."_

"_Yeah."_

"_You know, man, you're going to have to confront her some time. You can't avoid her anymore—you gotta clear this up for her! It really messed her up when you left without a word, you know? If it makes you feel any better, she'll be pissed off at me too. I mean, I kept it a secret for a whole five years! You owe me, by the way."_

"_No, no... this is my fault. I was the one who decided not to tell her—she'll think I don't trust her. In fact, she probably thinks I don't. She probably hates me, doesn't she? She does. I screwed up majorly—"_

"_NO WAY!" _

"_...?"_

"_Er, uh, I mean, no, she doesn't hate you. She's just... extensively angry at you to the point of hated."_

"_Heh, thanks Tuck. That makes me feel so much better."_

"_You are very welcome, my amigo."_

"_Er—hey, sorry, but I gotta go. We have to rehearse for the show and..."_

"_I got it, dude. Get here soon, ai'ight?"_

"_Right. Bye—yeah bye."_

He heard a door swing open and voices slowly begin to drift into the room.

He sighed and opened his eyes, clicking the On button on the remote control and grabbing the controller for the game counsel in his hand. He sat up, faked focus on the plasma TV, and ignored the two girls that peeked inside.

"Still playing, Tuck?" came Sam's amused voice.

"Still playing, Sammy."

"Uh huh, don't call me that."

"Righty-o." he murmured, pressing random buttons, wishing they would just go away and leave him alone. Sam did but Valerie didn't. She watched as his fingers pressed at random and narrowed her eyes. She had seen Tucker seriously play video games before and he didn't just press random buttons. He usually pressed one single button or did combination or moved the stick a lot but he never played _that _fast.

He was very strategic when he played, which humored her whenever she watched him play.

She sat down on the bed, beside him. "What's wrong?"

"EH? What are you talking about, Val, nothings wrong!" He side-glanced her nervously, trying to get his mind into the game. "I'm just.. trying to pass this level. Argh. Hard."

She glanced at the screen and frowned. "Tucker you've been in here for about seven hours straight and you're only on level 4."

"...Your point being?"

She sighed and sat closer to him, wrapping her arms around his waist and mumbling: "What happened, Tuck?"

He sighed as his girlfriend of four years hugged him. She knew him all too well now and he somehow knew that was a bad thing.

"Danny called."

She looked up, shocked. "W-what?"

"Danny called and he's... coming back."

Her face lit up. "That's great! I can't wait to tell Sam—"

"Nononono!" Tucker said rapidly, shaking his head. "No. You can't. Not now."

"But, why?" she frowned, confused. "Didn't she have like a mega crush on him during high school or something?"

"Um, she still does," he revealed, shifting his eyes away from hers. "Well, it sorta exceeds a crush but you get what I'm saying, right Val?"

"Uh huh...so why can't I tell her?" She sat up straighter, anticipating a long conversation. "Tucker wouldn't she be happier if she knew he was coming back from California? That's why she's so... sad, right? Because he left her without saying good bye or something like that. I haven't asked because I didn't want to pry but that's what I heard..."

He shook his head slowly, adjusting his maroon beret. "It goes a bit deeper than that, Val."

"Well... what happened?" She dared herself to ask.

He glanced down at her, almost sadly. "It's not my place to tell you. But all you need to know is that Danny did something... that could be counted as betrayal, to Sam. But he only did it to save her life and, well—she sort of doesn't see it that way."

"... She doesn't even know, does she?" Valerie filled in bluntly. She decided, though she was immensely curious, not to ask what was so dangerous that her life was in danger. Sure, she had a small liking towards Danny when she was younger but now Tucker had filled that empty spot. And she was so sure Danny and Sam would get together... half the school even made bets that they would end up together before Senior year.

All bets were called off a few weeks after Danny had left.

It didn't take a genius to figure out Sam's despairing aura was for his departure. She hardly spoke after that incident. She hardly spoke _now, _but she had opened up; gradually. Now she was almost normal – with the exception of her depressed mood swings.

But those moods were scarce and far in between.

"Right. So, you won't tell her, right Val? Baby?"

"Quit calling me baby and we got a deal."

"Done!"

Valerie stood up, stretched, and hide a coy smile when Tucker followed her movements shamelessly. She sashayed out the door but not before peeking over her shoulder and saying: "Oh, and what are you doing this Saturday?"

Tucker furrowed a brow, snapping his head back up from the—glittery back pocket her girlfriend had! Yeah, her back pockets sure did sparkle... "Uh, nothing why?"

"'Cause me and Star are going to take Sam to Circus Gothica! You know, to cheer her up a little? She likes those types of things, right? Dark, gloomy, and overall creepy."

She was completely oblivious to the sudden paleness his dark face took.

"You're going... to the circus?" he choked, coughing to clear his suddenly constricted throat.

"Not just any circus, Tuck, a circus made especially for freaks and Goth's like Sam! She'll love it—I remember when we were fourteen and she was raving about it for days. I wasn't your favorite person back then but that was probably the loudest she had ever been since I've known her. She'll love it, I'm sure." She smiled and left with small wave, leaving the poor boy to his thoughts.

"Oh, man," he groaned, letting himself fall back on Sam's fluffy mattress. He grabbed one of her fuzzy spider pillows and put it over his face. "Why, oh, why must Val take Sam to the circus _Danny_ practically owns?"

The only response he got was the clinking of the glasses, which were being distributed by one blissfully ignorant Sam.

* * *

_**A/N: I hope none of you get confused when I explain how Star and Sam became friends. If you are, then reread it XD I confused myself when I wrote it as well, so I don't blame you just please don't mention it in reviews. I'm quite aware that it makes little to no sense. Kinda.**_

**Please review! It's the least you could all do, right? I'll try to update every week or so, though. I don't like demanding a specific sum of reviews before an update... its not in my place to command people to review. Besides, I like writing. It's to you if you want to comment on it, right?**

_Scarlett._


	3. Chapter 3

_**Cirque Berserk**_

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_**3  
Drowning**_

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_She was there again – standing on that same train, looking into those beautiful scarlet eyes that shimmered dangerously. Only this time he wasn't holding a staff—he was simply standing there as the train rattled beneath them. The wind rustled their hair; tangling it, but neither moved to push it away._

_He moved first._

_He took tentative steps towards her, as if afraid of her reaction. There was no struggling Tucker, no ghostly minions, no psycho Freakshow; it was only them, on the roof of the train, for some unknown reason._

_She rather liked this dream._

_He stood in front of her now, looking down at her. He was taller than her, she noticed with some surprise. About one head. His hair was longer, too, and his eyes were now glowing a bright emerald not the bloody red she was accustomed to. He was well toned, too, she noticed rather casually, and he fit into that familiar white jumpsuit like a glove; defining all the muscles he had grown over the years._

_This was odd, she found herself thinking, why does he look so different?_

_His face looked matured; nothing like the past childishness it held. He was smiling too and she couldn't help but to notice how it fit him so well._

_She knew, somehow, that he didn't smile often._

"_Sam?" His voice was deep. A husky, low rumble in her ears._

_Now the desired effects began to kick in. She could feel her cheeks start to redden and her heart start to shutter. Her hands twiddled nervously and she chewed on her bottom lip as she stared at this new Danny._

_Suddenly, she wished this was like the other dreams: the awful feeling, the stab of hurt, the malicious intent in her best friends eyes..._

_It seemed easier to hate than love, she had found out. Love was too complicated for her tastes._

"_Sam?"_

_She kept staring and staring and suddenly she felt panicky; like there wasn't enough room to breath. This wasn't the real Danny, she concluded rather unstably. No, it couldn't be. He looked older. He wasn't fourteen. She glanced down at her hands, at her clothes._

_She was dressed in her usual splendor: thigh-high combat boots, fishnet stockings, stark black tank top. Only her skirt was shorter than average and her shirt reached above her navel, which wasn't how she normally wore it._

_But she was nineteen in this dream she was having. She wasn't fourteen._

"_Are... you afraid of me, Sam?" that alternate Danny said softly, looking hurt. He rushed over the next few words; she almost didn't catch them."I'm sorry for what I did. I really am. Sam I can explain—"_

"_No..." she managed to say. "No. No. No."_

"_Sam?" he stepped closer. She could feel that awful feeling of claustrophobia cage her. That pressing, closing, final feeling. It shut her in and suddenly leaping off the train seemed like a very, very good idea._

_Maybe then this bizarre dream she was having would end and she could go back to hating him like she usually did. This brought up an uncomfortable feeling in her chest; the feeling she usually embraced when they were younger. When he was still with them. When he still cared for her._

_She felt betrayed all over again by the affectionate look he was giving her._

_What did he want? She had been hurt enough. She had enough. Why couldn't he just leave her alone? It was bad enough she had to live with his memory forever etched in her heart. That irremovable scar he left her._

"_Sam, look at me," he whispered. His hand touched her shoulder tentatively, as if waiting for her to brush it away. She didn't. Even if it was a dream, she reasoned, it felt nice to have him touch her. Even if it wasn't real. "I had a reason. You know I did. I would never leave you if I didn't have one."_

_Yeah, leaping off the train seemed like a very good idea._

_She even dared flick her eyes over the edge._

_It didn't look _that _high now that she thought about it..._

_She flinched away from the thought and made the mistake of taking a step back, freezing again like she always did; that scream ripping up her throat as she lost her footing and fell. The familiar rush of adrenaline she experienced every night right before she woke up gasping in cold sweat was taking over her again._

_Only this time, it was different too._

"_SAM! NO!"_

_He saved her this time. He jumped off the tremulous train and dove in after her. That's when she noticed he wasn't ghost. His hair was back to it's raven black colour and his eyes were those adorable baby blue eyes she used to find herself secretly squealing over._

_He grabbed her wrist and she stared at him, no longer afraid of how close the ground was rushing to her._

"_I had a reason," he said, eyes boring into her. She hated the affection in them."I always did."_

"NO!" She bolted straight up. She was trembling so badly she thought that if she trembled any more she would eventually wiggle off the bed. She hugged herself tightly and closed her eyes, breathing deeply and trying to erase the dream from her minds eye.

But she couldn't.

His words stuck to her like adhesive.

"_I had a reason."_

"God bloody well you must have a reason," she spat at no one, her room dark and empty as it had always felt to her since his disappearance. She glanced at her clock quickly, finding it was just past five am. She had enough time to shower, change, and perhaps go grab a coffee somewhere before heading to school once more.

She quickly did her morning routine, as she mentioned before: shower, change and saunter to the fridge for a bottle of strawberry banana yogurt before leaving.

"Hey, Val, don't come pick me up!" Sam has called Valerie to stop their usual routine – where the girl would come to her apartment and wake her. She rolled her eyes as her friend spazzed on the other line.

She quickly towel dried her hair while Valerie lectured her on time management. She thought back to the car her parents had bought it and smiled to herself – it was severely underused. She usually rode with Valerie or Tucker.

"Don't worry about it, I'll be there," she sighed for what she thought was the hundredth time that morning, but a smile was still present. "I'll see you at school." She hung up and winced. Valerie was going to lecture her into oblivion for hanging up without saying a whisper of good bye.

Shaking her head, she glanced at the calender.

October nineteenth. Just a few more weeks until Halloween, she mused, her smile widening. The day where she could dress however she wished, act however she wanted, and enjoy the dark, sullen and playful atmosphere of the day of witches and ghosts.

_Who knows_, she thought,_ maybe I'll meet up with Ember or Kittie. _Those two spectral women weren't so bad once you got past their fiery tempers and ghostly obsessions. They were actually a bit like her: they stood up for what they believed in, thought men were complete idiots, and they both couldn't quite get a good grasp on love.

After all, Kitties boyfriend, Johnny 13, was still a shameless flirt and Skulker, Ember's own long-term boyfriend, had yet to tie the knot. Which, as Ember had put, "Gets on my God damn nerves that that baby can't suck it up and do it!"

And nicely put, Sam silently praised as she drove down the street, pausing on a red light.

Then she saw it.

The billboard. The God damned billboard. With Danny smack dab in the middle of it, summoning an ecto-blast in his hand and looking absolutely desirable. He looked exactly how she had pictured him in her dream, she noticed with growing dread.

The hair, the eyes, the over-all physique.

Same.

What was going on?

Then she remembered: Danny was a 'halfa', as most other full-fledged ghosts nicknamed him. He was the outcast of the Ghost Zone. He was a half ghost, half human hybrid. Only two of his kind. He could master the powers of all the ghosts that ever existed with enough time.

_Nocturne. _She thought automatically. _Nocturne is the ghost of dreams. _Could Danny have hampered with her dreams? No. Because then that would mean he would have to be there with her, right next to her, feeding her the dreams he wanted her to see in her minds eye...

_Unless he mastered long-distance manipulation. _She thought logically. She wanted to smack herself—sometimes ignorance _was _really bliss. She did not need her logical thinking to interfere. She'd much rather enjoy thinking that Danny came to visit her—

Wait, that was suppose to be worse, she scowled. Way worse! That meant he was _right next to her _during the night. That was breaking and entering and if she had enough evidence she would sue him!

Too bad he was a ghost. That type of reason held no basis in court.

_Long distance manipulation..._

But overall, she stared at that billboard dead ahead, hanging off that tall building. She noticed, from the corner of her eye, many teenage girls giggled excitedly as they stared at the same billboard. They were even dressed as she was: Gothic. Perhaps punk. She felt a surge of emotion pulse through her as the light switched to green.

She stomped on the gas and lurched the car forward violently, barely registering the furious scowl on her pale face.

She had a vague idea why she was feeling so angry but she didn't really press on it. She liked feeling angry; it was better than dwelling on the hurt that always made her sniffle or even cry at times.

But that hardly happened anymore.

What she didn't notice was the date printed quite broadly underneath _Circus Gothica._

October Twentieth.

* * *

"Alright, so, we're like going when?" Star asked suddenly, riding shot gun in the shiny, silver BMW while Tucker rode in the back, playing with his PDA quietly.

"When do you wanna go?" Valerie questioned right back, steering towards another, emptier lane. "It's a good thing Sam decided to get off her lazy butt and wake up early today."

"So, we're not going to pick her up?" Star almost whined. "But I wanted to see her crib! Ugh."

Valerie rolled her eyes."You'll see it later – when we actually have time."

"Ooh, how about Saturday!" Star beamed suddenly. "Tomorrow! We can buy a three-day ticket and go Sunday and maybe Monday at night! Or maybe we could save them and go on Halloween! Yes! That'll be awesome! We could go buy a three-day ticket and take same on the last three days!" Star planned quite sharply. "Is that alright?"

Valerie nodded in approval. "Excellent."

"Sweet, so now we just gotta get a thee-day pass for the three of us, so that will cost us..." Star stuck her tongue out, counting on her fingers repeatedly. "Four hundred dollars!"

"Holy shit!" Valerie accidentally cursed, her eyes wide. "Four hundred dollars?! Are you for real, girl?"

"Yes I am!" Star said airily. "It'll cost four hundred dollars because it's a three day pass and we need three tickets and it's for the Horror Fest – aka, Halloween night. We get a discount since we're buying more than two so instead of the initial five hundred it's four! Isn't that great?"

"Not for us it's not..." mumbled Valerie, looking glum. "For Sam." she added a bit more confidently.

Star nodded determinedly. "For Sam! And that hot hot hot guy that leads the whole show! Whoo!" she cheered loudly, giggling madly before snorting and lowering her excited giggles.

"I can get you guys discounts," Tucker blurted from the back.

"Really, Tuck?' Star said, amazed. "That would be so very nice of you!"

"How, hot stuff?" Valerie questioned suspiciously. "You're not going to counterfeit them, are you, Tuck?" she added alarmingly – it wouldn't be the first time Tucker had counterfeited tickets for shows.

And gotten away with it.

He snickered and shook his head. "No, I'm serious. The circus gives out coupons online so I can print them out and get them for you. Why don't I just go get the three-day tickets for you guys, anyways?" he added as casually as possible. "Sam's smart and she'll notice if you guys go out for a long time without her. I might as well do it; I've got nothing to do anyways."

"Don't you have classes?" Stair said curiously.

He coughed. "Yes, but at night. I have all day free."

Valerie stopped on a red light and chewed on her lip thoughtfully. "Hmm, he does have a point you know. Sam'll totally figure out that we got the tickets. I bet she already has an idea of where we're taking here. There are billboards and announcements all over the place! Advertisement is like crazy nowadays!" she said disapprovingly.

"Oh, no!" Star frowned, concerned. "That'll ruin the surprise..."

"Trust me, she won't know." Tucker reassured coolly. "You guys aren't into the stuff she is—she'll think you're going to take her to some scary horror movie or something."

Valerie nodded in agreement while Star wrinkled her button nose.

"I don't like horror movies!" she shivered. "They're so scary."

Both Tucker and Valerie looked at one another.

She did know that Circus Gothica was ten times more frightening than some silly horror movie, right?

Silently, they agreed they would let Star find out on her own.

* * *

Sam was feeling very, very anxious. She had this bad feeling in the pit of her stomach that just wouldn't fade no matter how much coffee she drunk.

She crossed her legs and sat back in her chair. The class wouldn't start for another ten minutes; it was barely filling. She was sure Valerie and Star would understand why she couldn't met them at the front of the school like usual. She would just had to meet up with them during lunch and make up some sad excuse.

She glanced at the clock and frowned. Five more minutes. She glanced out the window and let her eyes roam all over the stumpy buildings far away in the horizon. Then she felt her breath catch.

"Oh, _no_." she moaned, agonized.

There was a huge, showy poster of _him _with the words _Circus Gothica _right beside him in glowing letters stapled onto one of the other buildings that held more rows of classrooms. She had always wondered, in the beginning, why they had left such a wide, blank space there...

She figured out the reason after two weeks, when a giant poster containing information and dates for some flashy band crew was posted up. The wall informed the students of big events happening in the city.

This time, it was all about the Gothic circus from Hell.

She swallowed as she stared into his brightly (_seducing..._) glowing green eyes.

_Damn it._

There would be no focusing in _this _specific class today, she sighed in dismay.

Not when there were a pair of beautiful jewel eyes glaring back at her.

* * *

Tucker was _freaking _out. Literally. He drove the car his parents had bought him for getting the highest scores in the technology course down a rather empty street and glanced at his cell phone, which lay idly in the seat beside him, frequently.

It was really simple actually: call Danny and ask if he could so kindly give them four three-day passes for free...

_But I don't even know the guy anymore! _Tucker reasoned with himself frantically, _It's been five years! People change a lot in five years! _Alright, that would have worked but it was technically a lie. He hadn't changed—only physically. Sam was basically the same only smarter, prettier and definitely darker than when she was fourteen. Valerie and Star were both the same, too. Valerie perhaps got a hold of her temper and slimed down but Star... was still air headed. But she had her brilliant moments.

And Tucker _had_ kept in touch with Danny—via email.

They emailed one another frequently, when they weren't busy or when they had nothing better to do. But they had never once called one another; they had each others phone numbers but they never tried to call.

It would be too suspicious, they ended up thinking.

Sam would automatically notice the way his voice brightened and the way he spoke. He tended to be more laid back and cool when speaking to Danny. Like before when they were fourteen.

She would notice that. She was just perceptive that way.

And, Danny had horrible timing.

He would not be surprised if they _had_ decided to call one another Danny would decide ring him at some terrible moment in his life – officially screwing up his friendship with Sam, most likely.

"Aw, man." Tucker moaned, impulsively grabbing the phone and flipping through his contacts until he got to the D's. "All I gotta' do is ask 'em," he told himself with little confidence. "It's for Sam! He can't turn down Sam... right?" he gulped.

He stopped at a red light and hovered his thumb over the Talk button. All he had to do was press it, wait for him to pick up, and tell him the situation. He owned the circus; it shouldn't affect him in the slightest if he admitted four people in for three days for free... right?

_Aw, man! _He mentally groaned.

He pressed the button. And then immediately wanted to hang up but, like he said, Danny had awful timing. He decided to choose _that _time to answer the phone. After about three rings.

"_Hello?" _He heard talking in the background, along with music which strangely sounded melancholic and diabolical... Tucker just chose to ignore the melody and focused on what he was going to say.

Which wasn't much by the way he hadn't said anything after ten seconds.

"Oh, uh, hey man, what's up?" Tucker started casually enough, giving himself a silent thumbs up. So far, so good.

"_Tuck? Heh, it's kind of odd for you to be calling me. Is something wrong?"_

"R-Really?!" Tucker stammered, with an surge of panic. "'Cause I don't think it's bizarre at all. I mean, you're still my best friend and it doesn't make a difference that I haven't seen you in about five years and that you've probably totally crossed over to the Goth side. But it's all cool because I have nothing against Goths! I mean, Sam's a Goth! Er, not that I meant she wasn't _before _or that you were bad-looking—aw, sick, that sounded _so _wrong. I did not mean it like that, I swear to—"

"_Tucker, you're rambling."_

He paused. "I am not."

"_Hah, sure you aren't buddy. Alright, curiosity's been piqued: what do you want?"_

He froze. Since when did Danny become so _perceptive_? _Does this mean we can't call him Captain Clueless anymore? _He thought, unable to suppress the urge not to. It was, after all, his nickname for never noticing Sam's strong feelings for him. "I-I don't want anything! What gave you that idea?" he laughed nervously, switching lanes and turning to park in a fast-food parking lot.

He shut the engine down and sunk back into his seat.

"_Oh, well, you know, you're nervous. You're rambling. And if I know you Tuck, which I hope I still do, you tend to chatter uncontrollably when you're either lying or stalling. I'm taking my chances and guessing you're stalling because you want something from me."_

Tucker was mildly impressed. Danny had done his growing up during the past five years. "Hmm, call me crazy but that's probably the most logical and rational thing you have ever said in all the years I've known you."

"_... Thanks."_

Tucker chuckled. "Alright, alright..." He felt more relaxed than he had a few minutes ago. Danny was still Danny. "I was just, uh, wondering..." And now that nervousness came back twice-fold. "You know.. uh, crap."

"_Yes?"_

"Well.. Val and Star wanna take Sam—" he heard Danny inhale sharply. He didn't comment. "—out somewhere special since she's been feeling down lately... not that she isn't always but I believe that's a Goth thing. Or something. Well, anyways, I was wondering... do you think you could do me a favour and give me four three-day passes for Circus Gothica?" he rushed, squeaking slightly towards the end.

There was a pause, before he heard a hearty laugh. _"Jeez, Tuck. That's it? I can give you as many Circus Gothica tickets, dude. I __own__ it, remember?"_

He sighed in relief. That sure took a load off his back. "Aw, thanks man! I was thinking that I might have to use my ubber awesome hacking skills to get me some tickets," he snickered wickedly, laughing full-out when Danny responded with a sarcastic, _"Show off."_

"_Uh, Tuck?"_

"Yeah?"

"_Er, I can give you the tickets right now if you want but..."_

He rose a brow. "Oh. Where you at?"

"_Eh, see, that's the thing. We're actually in Amity Park—in the outskirts, by that creepy abandoned cemetery, uh, Sam always wanted to visit but we never let her because it was allegedly haunted and because the rumors were true – some pretty nasty poltergeist reside in there..."_

Tucker blinked. "What? Seriously? DUDE! How come you never told me! Argh, how long have you even been here?"

"_Couple of days... like.. a week?"_

"A WEEK!?"

"_Ehehehe? Sorry..."_

Tucker sunk in his brand new car's leather seat, lowering his maroon beret over his eyes and groaning to himself. "First Sam, now you. Honestly, am I that forgetful?"

"_... Sam?"_

He lifted his beret an inch, peeking out from underneath. "Uh, yeah. She never told me about the new DOOM 2.0 counsel she got—as always—months before the actual sells..."

"_Oh, yeah. I remember when we used to freak out because she had all the latest video games."_

He smiled softly as he reminisced about his younger days. When Danny was still around and it was just the three of them. "Yeah... uh, so, I'm free right now. How about I just go and get the tickets? You busy?"

"_What? Oh, yeah, totally! Er, I mean, I'm not busy. I'll wait for you here?"_

"Cool!" Tucker beamed, turning on the car once more and backing out of the parking space. "See you in ten, man!"

"_Sweet."_

He hung up, feeling immensely better.

But then a different kind of anxiousness had settled right after the call.

Just how much, exactly, had Danny changed in the course of five years?


	4. Chapter 4

_**Cirque Berserk**_

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_**4  
**__**Agitation**_

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When Tucker made it towards the edge of Amity Park, he immediately saw the giant circus tent ahead. It wasn't colorful like the usual circus tent was: this one was a black with neon green trimmings. The tip-top of the tent held a black, shredded flag with a rather diabolical clown outline stitched on.

The closer he got, the more developments he saw. He saw many people dressed in pure black or other dark colours walking around carrying boxes and boxes full of decorations. He saw some of them spray can strange insignias on the ticketing booth as well. There were some of the performers practicing their flexibility on the soft dirt near several smaller tents. His jaw went slack when one very pale woman dressed in very skimpy, leather clothing lifted both of her legs up and locked her ankles behind her neck, lifting her arms above her head and twining them together.

He parked nearby but walked the rest of the way, silently admiring the way everything seemed very organized. Everyone carried out a duty and completed it, no questions asked. Once finished with said job, Tucker noticed, they would report back inside the main tent and come back out to head towards a different part of the area to complete another task.

Other, smaller, tents were scattered behind the gigantic main attraction.

He guessed that was where all the staff retired to after a long days work.

"Tucker?"

He paused and turned, his eyes widening. He stared for a long time; he felt his mouth drop open in total shock. Danny stood directly behind him, holding a clipboard in his black leather gloves that reached his elbow. One was fingerless the other wasn't, making it rather unique. His nails were painted black. His hair was stark white, his eyes bright green, enhancing his supernatural appeal. He had on a drag leather trench coat adorned with several hooks, buckles and crosses. Most surprising, the halfa's lip was pierced and his eyes were outlined black.

He seemed tired and rather sleep deprived as well; if the bruise-coloured bags under his eyes said anything.

Somehow, though, that only made him look even more vile.

"...You got any tattoo's you wanna show me, too?" Tucker said dryly, walking towards him and enveloping him with brotherly compassion. "Welcome back, Danny."

"Wow, Tuck," Danny chuckled, once they separated. He took a good look at him and cracked a smile. "You look the same."

He looked affronted. "I do not!" he raised and arm and flexed. "See? Muscles!"

Danny barked out a harsh laugh. Tucker's smile waned a bit. "Well, almost the same."

"Damn," Tucker grinned. "Sam's gonna freak out when she sees you now."

Almost self-consciously, he glanced down at his attire. "Er, you really think so?"

"Same old Danny." Tucker shook his head, knowing fairly well Sam would probably inwardly glomp him. He was dressed like her—Goth. Danny Fenton had gone Gothic. What would Dash say now?

_Probably call him a dork, _he frowned. _Or a freak. _His frown deepened. _Or both._

"Right, so, the tickets. Come with me so I could give them to you," he smiled, gesturing him to follow his lead. Tucker noticed the heavy looking combat boots he wore.

"Don't those things bother you?" he questioned curiously. He would never his life wear those dreadful things; they looked terribly weighty. He liked being comfortable (thank you very much).

Danny shrugged as they both ducked over the black curtain that served as a door. Most of the inside was pitch black. "You get used to them."

"Sure you do," he murmured back, eying the boots critically. "Sam ditched her old boots."

Danny sent him a sharp, _knowing_, glance. "Did she?"

"Yup. She got these new ones—they go all the way up her leg and man if I thought the last ones looked heavy I was dead wrong," he shook his head, adjusting his beret some as they entered a dim hall. "So, where are we going?"

"My room," he answered, pointing to the lone door all the way towards the end. "It's where your tickets are at."

"Jeez, would it kill your night creatures to add some more lighting in here?" Tucker scowled, squinting to try and make out some of the odd shapes he was looking at. "I can hardly see where I'm going!"

"You don't know the irony of that statement," Danny grinned back crookedly.

"Yeah, well, living with Samantha Manson, Princess of All Things Dark, Creepy and Overall Disturbing, you get tired of seeing so much black after the initial four hours." he replied blandly, thinking back to her pitch black ceiling, her obsidian furniture and her stark black clothing.

"And you have been with her for how long exactly?" Danny decided to ask, already anticipating the answer. It seemed that with his absence, their friendship seemingly grew tighter, more compact... _deeper. _He wondered if he would ever be able to fit in with them again.

_Don't be stupid, _he chastised himself, _Of course I'll be welcomed back. _His thoughts drifted towards Sam for a moment. _If she decides to listen to what I have to tell her.... oh, man._

"Almost everyday before school, dude—Val's orders." he sighed heavily. "And now you've gone bad, too. Man, I'm gonna be seein' black all my life, huh? What happened to the primary colours? You know - red, blue, _white; _too bright for you creatures of the dark?"

Danny's laugh had softened as he grew comfortable with his old best friend. "You can say that I got tired of wearing the old t-shirt and jeans. After I managed to lock Freakshow away in prison for theft among other crimes, I had no idea what do with the circus. It still had about five more shows left before they could officially take a break, or close down. So I decided to try and get those shows over with since I felt responsible and I guess..." he smiled wryly, "I guess I kinda liked running a Satanic circus. It grows on you."

"I'm sure it does," Tuck said sarcastically. "Who doesn't like waking up to a fresh batch of mutilated bodies? Mmhm, nothing like good 'ol violence to start off the new day!" he threw his hands up in the air in faux enthusiasm. "Yay... bring out the two-headed dragon."

"Calm down, there's nothing relatively evil going around here," Danny reassured somewhat awkwardly. "Unless you count the ghosts."

"You mean all these people here are ghosts?!" He looked around him immediately, wishing he'd brought some form of protection. During the Ghost Raids, as the people in Amity Park decided to call them, he would usually be the number one target; being Danny Phantoms best friend and all. He usually had to walk outside with Sam and Valerie at his side with huge, specially-designed, ghost busting guns that looked like they could tear off a human head but in reality were relatively harmless to mortals.

If used properly.

Tucker didn't want to recall all the times he had misused one of the newly-improved ecto-guns... they usually included someone getting hurt, frightened, or confused. And most of the time it was _him _getting hurt.

"Not all," Danny said defensively, opening the door and leading Tucker inside. His room was darker than the hall was. He clicked on the light. Tucker was surprised to see it looked rather normal. No floating skulls, weird paintings or devil crosses anywhere. "Some are actual human employee's I hired sometime ago. They know about the ghosts and frankly don't care." Danny shrugged off his coat and threw it on his satin blue bedspread. "Better for me, anyways."

Tucker examined the jumpsuit he hadn't seen in years. It still looked the same—if not a bit tight on him. Alright, too tight on him. He could see every curve and dip his body had and that quite disturbed him.

Danny caught him staring and grinned roguishly. "Finally come out of the closet, Tuck?"

He didn't freak out like he normally did; mostly because he was thinking about bringing a camera to snap a picture of Sam's face when she saw Danny. "Hmm, not really. I'm actually feeling really, really perturbed by the way the suit looks like it's gonna rip at any given moment. Can't you change out of it or something?"

"Nope," Danny sighed, trying to grope his suit with his fingers. "It's like my second skin now. It's a good thing dad's jumpsuits were one size fits all or I else I'd be in really big trouble." He fell back into his chair, lazily reaching across his desk and grabbing a white envelope. He tossed it at Tucker. "There you go. Four three-day tickets to my show. Valid for any one of my shows while we're here."

"_Your _show?" Tucker smirked slyly, fingering the package. "Don't you mean _Freakshow's _show?"

"Nope," he grinned back. "_My _show. I officially own Circus Gothica. And as the owner, I'm pretty rich right now. You wouldn't believe how many people show up just to watch a three hour show. We mostly sell out in three, four days tops."

Tucker whistled lowly. "How many people can this baby seat?" he jabbed a thumb to the right, indicating the stage just a few paces out.

"About three hundred?" he smiled nervously, scratching his snowy white hair back. "Er, one thing that hasn't changed about me: I still can't do mental math."

Tucker laughed. "And you think I can?" He whipped out his wrist and winked, turning it to reveal an ordinary-looking watch. He pressed the side button and a mini-calculator popped right out, designed to calculate very high numbers.

Danny did not look surprised. He just laughed. "Cheater."

"Work smarter, not harder, pal." He popped the device back in and glanced around the room, then at the clock ahead. Twelve in the afternoon. The girls were probably having lunch, he guessed.

"So, how's life?" Tucker started casually enough, then wiggled his brows suggestively. "Any girlfriends I should know about?"

Danny's pale cheeks went red and he shook his head, sighing a laugh. "No... I tried once though."

Tucker wasn't very surprised. After all, he was still a man. But he couldn't help to think that perhaps this was one talk he would not tell Sam. An angry Sam was not always a very good Sam. "How did it go?"

"Horrible," he grimaced. "I couldn't even like her as a friend. She was everything I hated. Too happy, too bright, too girly... I met her during one of my shows. I asked her to come to the stage and help me demonstrate a special trick. She kept coming to my shows after that and then she asked me out."

"_She _asked you out?" Tucker echoed incredulously. "What about you?"

Danny rubbed the back of his neck nervously. "I sorta thought she was pretty but it never really went beyond that. I decided to try it since... well, you know." he glanced away, his cheeks growing redder. "But I never tried to make it work, now that I think about it. I didn't even like her. I was just trying to forget Sam—crap." He gave Tucker a long, hesitant stare.

The African American man grinned widely. "Danny and Sam sitting on a tree! K-I-S-S-I-N—OUCH!" He rubbed his arm feverishly, casting a severe glare at Danny, who was sitting in his chair like nothing, looking idly towards the ceiling.

"I saw that."

"You did not."

"New power?"

"Kinda."

"Show off."

"Oh, grow up." Danny smirked. It quickly became a grin when Tucker stood up and pounded his fist to his chest.

"I did!" he lowered his voice to a whisper, his eyes glinting behind his spectacles. "I grew up so much I finally know what Valerie hides underneath her shirt!" He rose his brows suggestively.

Danny's emerald eyes widened. "No way."

"Way, man, way."

"You and Valerie?"

"Yep," he sat back down on the bed, stretching his legs out. "It happened in Sophomore year—we began flirting a lot. Yes, Danny, I finally got the hand of flirting," he ignored the snow haired ghosts snort, "and by Junior year I guess I mustered up enough guts to ask her now. Now it's been about three years and so far, so good, brother!" he beamed.

"Well, that's great, Tuck." Danny said sincerely. "I'm really glad you finally managed to get a girlfriend after all those failures."

"Hey, if I am not mistaken, you were never very popular with the ladies either!" Tucker protested.

"Not anymore." Danny winked. "Apparently I get eyed like meat every time I step onto that platform."

Tucker then made the mistake of saying: "Pfft, if Sam was there she'd eye you like a piece of ripen fruit or something. I mean, before, when we were fourteen, she always used to gush about how cute you were. Jesus, she really was a girl underneath all that black!" he snickered at his own joke before freezing and snapping his head up at Danny who looked honestly shocked.

He forgot: Danny was no Valerie and that meant that the small, inoffensive, jokes about Sam and Danny's relationship were not handled as well when one of the aforementioned Goths was in the room. And you happened to say one of the jokes in front of them.

They tended to look at you with disbelief, shock and some irritation – much like how Danny was staring at him.

_Note to self: don't tell Sam about this either, _he thought nervously.

"I-I mean," Tucker blurted, racking his mind for a excuse. "I didn't mean that! Er, she doesn't like you at all! Yeah, thats right—no wait she does! She does, but not like that you know? Just like - a best friend! No, wait, er, uh, aw, crap." He winced and dropped his head into his hands, ignoring Danny for a second. "Man, Sam's going to skin me alive..." He shuddered at the mental image.

"She... liked me when we were younger?" the halfa asked quietly.

_Well, might as well. _Thought Tucker, still worried. _I mean, Sam's still not over him and from what I can see, neither is he. _"Y-Yeah. Why do you think we called you Clueless?" he smiled wryly. "Sam used to go green with jealousy when you were all over Paulina. That was probably the only reason she hated Val, too," Tucker added for good measure. "You two dated for like a week, right?"

Danny nodded, seemingly lost in thought. He looked guilty too. "Yeah but..." he scratched the back of his head in a very Danny-like way. "I-I never knew she felt that way about me. I mean, if I had known that before I would have never—"

"What happened, happened, alright, man?" Tucker interrupted, quite relieved. Danny wasn't so different after all. Sure, his style had changed drastically but it was only for the show he hosted. Sure, his features has matured and he had acquired new and deadly powers to add to his already dangerous arsenal. But one thing that hadn't changed was his compassionate nature. He would always be a kind, innocent kid inside. Even if the lip piercing stated otherwise. "'Sides, I bet she's glad it happened. It probably helped strengthen her feelings or something like that." He wasn't good with the whole 'girl feelings' thing.

He handled enough abuse from his current girlfriend during her monthly cycle which he never mentioned in fear that she would think he was some closet pervert for mentioning a very natural occurrence.

Moody girls were unpredictable that way.

"Probably," Danny muttered distractedly. "Or maybe she just hates my guts for what I did to her five years ago." The ghost boy sighed frustratingly and sunk even deeper in his chair. "I doubt she'll even want to listen to me. It's been five years and I've been free for at least two. How am I going to explain that I didn't have enough guts to call her up or visit?"

"Well, you _were_ managing a circus. I believe that does take time to plan out and what not so you can use that as an excuse. And you can also come clean with her and tell her the whole truth instead of lying and making the situation worse. You could even tell her the whole 'I'm-a-wussy' part you were whining about just now." Tucker grinned. Then, a sheet of paper was crumpled, levitated off Danny's desk, and hit him dead on his head.

"New power?" he said hopefully, eying the crumpled piece of paper that straightened itself and returned to it's previous location. He rubbed his forehead.

"Yep," Danny said cheerfully. "You'd be surprised at how many new powers I managed to obtain."

"Eh, no offense, buddy, but don't do that." he said bluntly, still eying the sheet of paper. "You look scary and the eyeliner and piercings aren't making this any better."

"Note taken."

_**

* * *

**_

She had had a horrible day. No, she _was _having a horrible day. As she walked to her car, Star and Valerie beside her, she could only think about the piercing, glowing eyes of her childhood infatuation. It made her skin crawl with rage when she saw how absolutely calm and mesmerizing he looked.

He looked unaffected and completely in charge.

Did he really take their friendship so lightly?

Why did he have to look so sure of himself, so... _indifferent. _

_I guess I can be sure he never even liked me, _she thought darkly, tuning out Star's cries of glee and Valerie's laugh, as she stuck the keys into the door and threw it open with a harsh shove.

"Hey, you guys?" Sam interrupted politely, trying not to let any of the fury she felt penetrate her voice. "I'll catch up with you two later – I have some major homework to do. All the prof's got some beef with me because the load is just too cruel."

Valerie snickered, though there was a sympathetic spark in her eyes while Star "aww"'d loudly and stomped her foot.

"But, like, I want to see your apartment!" she whined, "You promised! I thought Manson's didn't break promises," she added cunningly, eying Sam critically.

"We don't," she said, forcing a smile and killing the urge to look behind her and flip off the poster of her teenage crush. "But we do postpone them until further notice."

"Sam—"

"Oh, come on, Star," Valerie tugged her away, not meeting Sam's eyes. "We'll talk to you soon, Sam."

She smiled gratefully at the African American woman but the uncomfortable look on her face didn't settle well with her. She gripped her messenger bag to her body as Star and Valerie walked to their own car, Star loudly complaining how life was being terribly cruel to her.

The instant they hopped into their car, backed up and sent her some farewell smiles and waves before leaving, Sam turned sharply to the poster of Danny Phantom.

She gripped the roof of her car and allowed her darkening violent eyes to bore into the man's vibrant emerald.

She lifted her lip into a sneer and spat: "We don't need you here either." She narrowed her eyes at his unwavering green, the edge of the poster peeling with the wind. "We never needed you here." She shoved herself into the car and quickly left the parking lot, knowing how much of a lie that was.


	5. Chapter 5

_**Cirque Berserk**_

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_**5**_

_**Tension**_

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He was feeling awkward.

Severely awkward ,as he walked down a familiar path in the town he had once resided in. His hand unconsciously went to his bottom lip, touching the place where his piercing would be fitted. He had taken them all off and ditched his utterly gloomy attire. Instead he donned a painfully ordinary t-shirt matched along with jeans and sneakers. His hair was still spiked up – as he had always done since he had left Amity Park – but he felt strangely naked without his usually dark and menacing clothing.

Many would keep their distance when he wore his stage clothes. But he wanted to roam around the town; he wanted to see the changes, the people; smell the familiar scents of his childhood home and admire the places he and his friends would once hang out in.

He felt nostalgic when he slowly walked past the Nasty Burger – wistfully watching as a laughing teenager flanked with friends, who would probably be there for him through thick and thin, entered the fast food restaurant.

He sighed and continued to walk, pausing only once to let a pregnant woman wobble past him – hands full of grocery – and helping her when she inevitably dropped her bags. She smiled gratefully at him, her brows creasing with recognition, and said: "I've seen you somewhere before."

Danny didn't freeze up. He was used to this reaction.

Thankfully he had a well-rehearsed response to it.

"I'm part of Cirque Gothica, ma'am," he smiled, holding her bags in his hands. He tried to keep his face as neutral as possible – the bags were starting to weigh on him and he wondered how a woman with child could _ever _carry such heavy things.

_Hormones, _he thought silently, watching as her expression morphed to that of shock before changing to excitement.

"Oh! You're the handsome boy from the poster!"

"Uh, thanks?" he said unsurely, not used to this response. Usually, they would ask for his autograph or try to coax a discount out of him – or straight out send him a sneer matched along with distasteful eyes for his career option.

"My son admires you," she said kindly. "Recently he's bought tickets for your show. I'm coming too – I hear your show is something out of this world."

Danny only kept his smile. "So they say."

"I do hope you live up to the title," she joked good naturely.

"Oh, I do." Danny replied, finally getting a hold of the conversation. "Don't worry, you won't be disappointed. Though," he glanced down at her swollen belly and smiled sheepishly, "it isn't really for the faint of heart."

She giggled and touched her stomach. "I wouldn't worry about that! I'm not squeamish like those other girls. I'm actually a Doctor – can't have a squeamish doctor, right? What use would I be if I was!"

Danny felt the muscles in his abdomen tighten at her words. The serenity fell to his ankles and a gloom settled overhead. He cast his gaze down to his shoes and struggled to get a hold of the sudden wave of despair that washed over him. This was no time to be emotional.

_Sam wanted to be a doctor..._

"You alright there?" she asked concernedly.

"I'm fine, thanks," he replied, glancing at the Nasty Burger briefly to see the aforementioned teenagers still in their careless mood. He bitterly thought that perhaps they should cherish these moments – they didn't really understand how unappreciative they were until those joyful moments disappeared.

He did.

He really did.

"I have to go," he said abruptly, cutting the woman off mid-sentence. She looked slightly taken aback. He handed her the bags. "Sorry, but I'm running late – take care!" he added, continuing his walk as she waved.

He paused at a intersection, rolling back and forth on the balls of his feet as he waited for the light to change. A black car consumed him vision and Danny lifted his eyes to met two very shocked violet ones. He froze, staring back.

They stared for quite a while, neither making a move.

The light turned green yet Sam had yet to pull forward as per usual. Instead she stared back at the man she hadn't seen for the last 5 years and felt an irrevocable wave of affection flood though her system. She felt the impulsive need to leap out of the car, embrace him, give him a good knee in the groin and watch him writhe in pain as she gave him the scolding of a lifetime before giving him one last crushing hug.

A series of honks brought her back to reality, where her foot jerked to the gas, making the car lurch forward with such speed she was slammed back into her seat. Thankfully, no one had been in front of her at the time and all she got out of it was a great rush of adrenaline and a few rapid heartbeats.

She continued on her way home like usual, though this time her mind lingered on the shell-shocked expression of Daniel Fenton.

And just as she parked the car in her usual spot, pushing the door open as she usually did, and taking the regular rout that would lead to her apartment, she felt something not so usual.

She felt longing.

And hurt.

Let's not forget hurt, considering the instant she entered her house, she felt her eyes sting brutally and she figured this was the beginning of a sob-fest.

* * *

Danny locked the door behind him and rested against the door, drawing in a clear stream of air through his nose before releasing it just as easy. His heart was still hammering from the incident not too long ago.

He could feel his cheeks start to flush and his pulse quicken as he summoned the picture of _her:_ Samantha "Sam" Manson.

He ran his fingers though his unkempt hair, sighed loudly, and decided that letting out a good, loud, groan would help ease his frustration.

"Nice Fenton," he mumbled. "You could've said 'hi', at least." He grumped to himself, moodily staring at his black trench coat, which hung haphazardly off a wooden chair near his desk. "But instead you stared." He let his gaze dip to his shoes, his regular sneakers. "... and she stared back." A small smile replaced his frown but it still did nothing to calm the constricting feel of his stomach. Many emotions had flitted through her eyes – recognition, shock, hurt, _pain – _and a few others he could not identify. He wondered what type of emotions shifted through his face in that private moment they both shared...

A knock made him jump, automatically transforming him into his ghost counterpart; a blazing ball of green hovering on his palm.

He blinked.

Not again.

"Uh, come in!" He quickly put out the ecot-blast and reverted back to his human shape, fixing his hair again once he caught sight of his disheveled it looked from the mirror adjacent to him.

"Danny?" a female voice called carefully. "Lydia asks if we may start our rehearsal early for she has a rather important engagement to attend in a few hours." She came into full-view, her skin a leathery, glowing, blue. Her eyes were the normal vibrant green of any ghost and her hair swirled about her in sleek curls, cascading down her back; her outfit much too skimpy to be considered decent. But Danny was already used to seeing such exposed skin, as his trips of the Ghost Zone had become more frequent during the past years.

Female ghosts tended to dress explicitly, for what reasons he could not fathom.

"Yeah," he breathed. "Yeah, I'll be there in a sec. Thanks ."

She looked at him oddly. "You alright, Danny?"

"What?! Oh, yeah!" He laughed nervously, rubbing the back of his neck. "Yeah. Of course I'm fine, why wouldn't I?"

She cocked a brow but otherwise stayed silent. "I shall go round up everyone, then." She disappeared from view and Danny let out a sigh of relief.

"That was close," he glanced at himself in the mirror, prodding his forehead and cheek. "Do I really look that bad?" He shook his head and flopped on the bed.

"I'm so stupid." He mumbled under his breath, picking at his dark coloured sheets. _Shes going to come to my show. _He lifted his gaze. _I can barely say her name without feeling bad. How the heck am I going to be able to face her?_

He groaned and stuffed his face deeper into his pillows.

_... She's prettier than before._

Danny set his jaw and groaned even louder. He didn't find it fair that snap shots of her persisted to plague his mind.

Especially her eyes, which seemed to have intensified in colour... and decreased in vibrancy.

They seemed almost blank and he was deftly sure that it was because of him, which wrenched him with an unstoppable amount of guilt. It felt as if his stomach was going to explode with it.

_Oh, man, why do these things always happen to me? _He brooded.

Someone called his name.

He stifled a sigh and sat up, cracking his back before heading towards his door and to the flock of freaks that awaited him beyond it for another rehearsal...

* * *

_Breath, breath, breath—BREATH!! _Were her rushed thoughts as paced back and forth in her apartment, hearing her heart drum in her ears to the point where the normal sounds of the city were droned. Dry tear streaks adorned her pale face; puffy, red eyes matching the tired limp in every step.

She hadn't expected this. She hadn't expected this at _all. _She did not think she would meet him under such normal circumstances.

_Normal?! _She snorted inwardly. _Nothing is normal with him around! _Sam was sure his eyes had blazed an ardent emerald when they connected but she couldn't be so sure. It could have been a play of the lights; his eyes being angled in a way that made them _appear_ green...

She groaned and flopped back on her bed, grabbing a pillow and stuffing it over her face. She could feel the awful twinge morph into a stabbing sort of sensation. It hurt to think that he was so close yet so far.

"Well," she sighed woefully. "At least – at least I don't have to attend his show, right?" Her spirits felt lifting already. "Ha! D... Danny? Running a goth show?" Sam shook her head in disbelief. "He never showed even an ounce of interest in rock music... or Gothic clothing.. or anything else that I was interested in," she sighed, "except ghosts – but that was inevitable. His family runs a Ghost Hunting agency, for crying out loud!"

Her small rant was met with infinite silence, leaving her far more frustrated than before.

She ended up grumbling to herself as she trudged to her living room, relieved that he would only be present for a few weeks for the show she used to adore. But the more she thought of him, the more conflicted she became.

How was he?

How did he become the owner of Circus Gothica?

What in the world was he thinking?

And most importantly... "Did he really have a reason?"

Her answer came in the form of Tucker jumping from his spot in her couch, guiltily hiding his PDA from view.

"T-Tucker?" Sam stumbled, "what are you doing here?" She searched for someone tall, dark, and bossy. "Where's Valerie?"

"Uh," was his genius response. "She's not here right now."

"O... kay. Why are you here then?" Sam made her way towards her dining table, pushing away the bag and sunglasses atop. "Do you need anything?"

"No... erm, not really." Tucker stood up and cautiously walked towards her, keeping his distance in a way that made her suspicious. "I, uh, used the key you have me to come in...?" He lifted his keychain to show her. "Yeah..."

What was he so anxious about?

"Something the matter?" she asked after seeing him jump when she tapped her foot."Tucker, I know you're hiding something from me. You suck at being secretive." She laughed at his horrified expression. "Oh, come on! What could be so secretive that even I can't know?"

She paused. "You're... not going to do what I think you're going to do, are you?" She eyed him.

Tucker, meanwhile, was having a mini-panic attack inside. He could feel thick, wet drops of sweat drip down the side of his temple and his hands felt clammy and moist. Every little noise he would usually overlook or not hear at all made him jump for cover and his mind was reeling from the encounter with Danny.

He had to tell Sam.

He just _had _to.

Even if it got him pinned under a myriad of lit black candles, sharp daggers, ecto-bombs, and other dangerous things Sam kept under her bed and in her closet...

... and randomly on the floor...

The problem was that Sam wasn't very... _welcoming _to conversations regarding the snowy haired hero. She usually ended up spatting his name and stalking out of her room only to come out hours later, looking even more broody than when she left, as well as apologetic.

It was a process he preferred to avoid.

But this was big, this was _important. _And Sam had told him once that if _anything _regarding Danny pops up, he would tell her.

Then again... Sam _was _depressed and desperate for the halfa to come back... was the statement still valid five years later?

Tucker decided, yes, it was.

"U-Uh... by 'you're not gonna do exactly what I think you're gonna do' you don't mean..." he swallowed.

Sam nodded slowly. "Are you?"

"Er, yes?"

Sam sprung her eye wide open, her jaw slacking. "Oh, my God... you're actually going to – going to..."

Tucker felt a tad bit more confident now. "Yes, I'm going to tell you the truth!"

Sam grinned and jumped up from her seat, nearly knocking the chair back in the process. She clapped her hands together and smirked. "It's about time you sucked up your cowardice and did it! I'm so proud of you, Tuck!"

"Yeah!" Tucker yelled back, mildly confused. "Yeah, I'm proud of myself too?"

Sam crushed him in a hug and patted his back friendlily. "Tying the knot already, huh?"

For a moment, all Tucker could hear was an eerie _beep _as her words registered in his head. And when they did, he felt even more horrified than before.

"NO!" he cried, panic-stricken. "No! No way! Nu uh! Nope! Nen! Nein!" Tucker ducked from her headlock and shook his head feverishly. "I'm not going to marry Valerie, Sam, are you crazy?!"

Sam looked puzzled. "You're not?"

"NO!"

"Then what were you going to tell me that's so important you have to come to my house without Val?" Sam plopped back into her seat. "You two are usually inseparable."

"Yeah, well..." Tucker coughed awkwardly. "It's not that, okay? I'm not going to... to..." He shuddered.

"Oh, come on. Would it really be so bad if you were to tie the knot with Val?" she pressed.

"Well, no, but, you know..."

"No, I don't know," Sam smirked. "Why don't you elaborate?" She just loved making him feel uncomfortable.

"Look, Sam..." Tucker hesitated. "It's about—It's about—COOKIES!" He bailed, cursing himself inside. He had seen the tiredness in his friends eyes, the veiled sadness that sifted through them. He couldn't make her day any worse than it had already been.

_Oh, crap, but I'm gonna have to tell her soon, _he thought agitatedly. _Maybe tomorrow. After she sleeps this day off... yeah. _So he was taking the cowards way out, and?He honestly did not want to be on the receiving end of Sam's wrath. She had a tendency to play with her 'victims', as Val joked.

_Humph, _Tucker thought moodily, _That's 'cause she's never witnessed her throwing a fit. Man, can she throw a punch! _He shook his head, brushing off _that _days memories.

"So, cookies? Tucker, you know that I can't bake without something burning," she said dryly. Cookies? He was _definitely_ hiding something if what he wanted to talk about was cookies.

"Y-Yeah," he stammered, frantically trying to avoid any contact with the college student. "Cook—"

Suddenly, a loud alarm blared through the room.

Sam acted quickly.

She bolted to her room soundlessly and reemerged in a suit similar to Valerie's back in the day. It was skintight and clashed menacingly with her narrowed, determined eyes. It was a combination of black and red; it held various secret compartment all filled with special Anti-Ghost devices that would help her in her battles. She heaved out her ecto-gun, sliding it in place and feeling the familiar feel of cold metal.

She dropped her gun to the floor and watched it transform into a hover board similar to Valerie's own – only this one was much sleeker, more refined and revolutionized. It floated a few feet above the floor, ready for combat.

She pulled on her fingerless gloves.

"Hold that thought, Tuck!" Sam's voice rang clearly though the mask that covered more than half of her features. "I'll be right back!" In a blink of an eye, Sam was riding out of her apartment through the open window in her living room.

Silence ensued once the alarm died out.

Tucker stood idly, the silence deafening him to the point where he groaned loudly simply to fill the gap of nothing.

"Well, at least I don't have her the truth."

"Tell who the truth?" Val pipped, slamming the door behind her. She rose a brow when his dark face paled several shades.

"N-No one..."

"Tucker..." Valerie warned, drawing closer. She dropped her backpack on Sam's couch and set her hands on her hips. "What are you hiding?"

"NOTHING!" Tucker exploded, springing to his feet. "Man, why does everyone think I'm hiding something!?"

Valerie scowled.

Tucker sighed and sank back into his chair, put out. "Right... Sam almost managed to—to make me spill where you guys are taking her," Tucker lied rather efficiently, watching his girlfriends annoyed expression melt into slight concern.

"Does she know, though?"

"Nah," he shook his head, twiddling his PDA in his hands. "I doubt it – before she managed to get it out of me, her Ghost Sensor went off."

"Ah, yes," Valerie said at length, slipping out a round, blinking, device from her pocket. She dropped it on the couch beside her bag. "That thing nearly made me crash into the car behind me when I was parking." She shuffled out her car keys and eyed Tuckers pocket. "Trade?"

Tucker sighed but smiled anyways – the guilt he felt for lying was slowly fading...

"Yeah, sure."

At least he could keep his encounter with Danny secret for a while longer.

* * *

_**A/N: I'll try to make these chapters longer, but four thousand is the limit. I want to keep them short; it won't be long now, though. **_

_**BAD NEWS: I won't be able to update within the next 3 weeks since I will be at Mexico, enjoying the awful smell of the ranch. La di freakin' da. **_

_**GOOD NEWS: I WILL complete at least 5 chapters in those 3 weeks! Haha! I love the fact that I will be doing nothing for at least half that time. Whoop de freakin' do. **_

_**REVIEW!! It'll make me update quicker. **_

_**Adiós, amigos!**_

_Scarlett**.**_


	6. Chapter 6

_**Cirque Berserk**_

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_**6  
Identity, Secret**_

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Sam soared through the air at a speed that would make most want to hold their stomach and close their eyes. Idly, she remembered how she used to be frightened by the machine she now so ever adored. She remembered how Valerie had teased her endlessly – a no-good habit she most likely got from Tucker – about her fear of flying.

It wasn't the flying itself, though, that had the hairs in the back of her neck stand on end. It was the fact that she was _alone _that had her so terrified. She had never been alone while flying. And contrary to common belief, she _had _flown. A lot. It used to be a favourite past-time of hers.

It used to be an excuse to spend time with someone who meant the world to her.

Sam gripped her belt tightly against these thoughts. _Meant the world to me?_ She thought grimly, _Yeah. He did, huh?_

She slowly drifted through the air, staring across the blanket of noir that made up the sky; dabbled in bright spots of light that used to make her smile with delight. Now they were only petty reminders of the innocence she had shed.

Things weren't always as simple as one could make them seem.

"_Come on, Sam!" Valerie frowned, displeased by the way the Gothic girl was simply standing there, before the hovering craft, dumbstruck. "It's just a board – you know how to skateboard right?" She received a nod. "It's the same – it's all about balance. Except..." she smiled lightly, "well, you'll be in the air flying doing about 90 miles per hour or so."_

_What little colour Sam's face had before drained now._

"_Grr," Valerie stomped forward and placed on firm foot atop the board. It didn't move an inch. "See? It won't wobble nor will it drop you. All you have to do is secure your feet in here," she pointed to the claps that would automatically wrap around her foot to secure her to the board, "and push forward!" She jumped on, let the claps' lock, and bent her knee forward, prompting the board to drive forward._

_Valerie hopped off and gestured to the high-tech device. "Well?"_

_Sam only stared, seemingly lost in thought._

"_Oh, come on! Aren't you suppose to be brave or something? I thought you were all tough and the like... I didn't think you'd be a wussy about it," Val said smugly, only getting smugger when Sam shot her a deathly look._

"_I'm not a wussy," she replied, coldly._

"_Then what are you waiting for?" The same smugness that was apparent in her tone, seemed to have coated her pose, since the way she pointed at the board was all superior-like; as if she had finally figured out Sam's greatest fear. "Don't tell me a little flying makes the great Goth girl tremble?"_

"_Shut up," Sam glanced at the board a little nervously. She strode forward, ignoring Valerie's humored eyes, and put a foot atop the board. As the darker girl had promised, it did not move. In fact, as she gathered up enough courage to place her other foot in the clasp, it didn't move until the claps had locked._

_Thats when it began to get a bit dangerous._

"_Good, now bend forward slight—WHOA!" Val gaped as Sam's board struck forward like lightening, heading straight toward the tree in front. "WATCH OUT!!"_

_Sam had; her body leaned back, guiding the board upwards towards the sky, where millions of sparkling stars glistened in her eyes. The breath had been knocked out of her; her stomach felt sick and twisted; her limbs trembled from the terrible yet fascinating rush of adrenaline. _

_But just as she began to control the board, finally get the gist of it, everything went wrong. Suddenly, her foot wasn't in the clasp, and suddenly she felt the weight of gravity start to pull her down._

_Her eyes widened, her pulse raced, her ears pounded with the rush of blood that pooled at her temples yet drained from her face. The board was leveled again, but she wasn't. In fact, as the air rushed all around her, she could feel her lips curving into that familiar call. She could remember _that _day so vividly it made her want to heave out whatever she had eaten hours before. She could feel her mouth betray her; her thoughts utterly forsake her. _

"_DANNY!!"_

_She really didn't want to call his name out. She really didn't but she had in the end she had. Valerie had ended up saving her, hovering on her own board with Sam tucked in her arms, and her face grimmer than she had ever seen it before._

_Sam had lowered her eyes in shame._

_Danny wasn't here to save her this time. He wasn't ever going to _be _there to save her again._

_It was just a thought she had to get used to from therein. _

"AHHHH! HELP ME! PLEASE! SOMEONE!"

Sam snapped out of her reverie the instant the plea had reached her ears. Maneuvering the board expertly, unlike those three years ago, she sped to where she was sure the cry originated from; somewhere in a dusty, dirty, ally.

_Of course ghosts would stalk their victims here, _Sam thought wryly. _Wow, these ghosts have no originality whatsoever._

"Stand back!" Sam reached for her holster, where she kept Maddie's state-of-the-art ecto-plasmic gun she had personally developed for Sam's use only. And if Sam had anything to say about it, she's say it worked magnificently.

She posed, aimed, and fired at the threatening, other-worldly, entity with dangerous agility. It gave a rather vehement hiss and turned it's black eyes towards her, baring it's teeth, which were nothing more than black, sharp, spikes in the dim moonlight.

"Shadow," Sam revealed almost exasperatedly, lowering her weapon of choice. "What are you doing here? _Again_? And where's Johnny?"

Shadow rose one of it's brow, looking around itself to find his master, and shrugged in the end.

Sam sighed. "Oh, great. Now I have to find him, too, before he stirs up some trouble... hey, I thought Kitty had him sorted out!" She placed her hands on her hips and scowled at the not-so-menacing ghost that sat on it's hind legs, arms above his head in his preferred 'scare-pose', sending Sam an annoyed look, as if saying 'I'm in the middle of scaring someone half to death right here'.

"Ugh, fine." Sam reached behind her and pulled out the Thermos, making Shadow's hollow eyes widen with fear.

It sent the woman a feral growl before bouncing away from the scene speedily, leaving Sam and the man Shadow was trying to scare alone.

"Great," Sam lowered her Thermos heavily. "I really hope he catches up to Johnny, then maybe I can catch the both of them together like last time... are you alright? Sorry about that! Shadow just likes to... play games with us, er, humans?" She smiled reassuringly at the wide-eyed civilian.

"I-I," was all he could manage.

"Sorry, but I have to go," Sam winced when she heard an explosion come from the shopping district. "See you!"

"T-Thank you!" The man stammered, smiling as he waved her good-bye. "Thank you, Black Rose!"

_Black Rose? _Sam grimaced, spotting Johnny 13 showing off his bike to a couple of human girls near the mall. She scowled and headed down, her hand gripped around the gun tightly. She saw Shadow lift an after-hours hot dog cart above his head, sniffing out something that had caught his interest. _Jeez, these people always come up with bad names! _She tried not to think about one in particular, one that always used to make her burst out laughing...

_Inviso-Bill, _she thought anyways, sending a jolt of grief to her chest area. Her hover board wobbled slightly.

_Not now. Don't think about that now, damn it!_

"Johnny!" Sam hollered, conviction in her tone. Johnny froze, snapped his head up towards her, and shot the girls he was entertaining a deft smile before hopping onto his bike and letting out an ear-splitting whistle.

"Well, if it isn't the Wall Flower!" Johnny smirked, revving up his bike as she hovered across from him, a good three meters away.

"It's Black Rose, you idiot," she rolled her eyes.

"Uh, yeah, whatever."

"You're stupid pet's been terrorizing the citizens of Amity – I want you to either stop him or go back to the Ghost Zone!"

Johnny smirked darkly, readying himself for an attack on the woman. "What if I don't wanna?"

Sam growled. "Then your face is going to get intimate with my fist!"

"I wouldn't mind... maybe I'll finally be able to see the pretty face that's behind that helmet of yours," he winked, earning another exasperated growl from the girl.

"I don't have time for your games today, Johnny... either you go the hard way or the easy way." Sam gripped the gun and raised it at him for good measure.

"Hard way," he smirked, "kinky, Rose."

Sam prepared herself for the worst, when a malicious thought came to mind. She searched around her quickly, taking a look at her Ghost Radar, which was integrated with the sleek black glass that covered her eyes like shades. She smirked when she saw only Johnny registered on the radar – and that another ghost was heading towards them and fast...

"Where's Kitty, Johnny?" Sam asked abruptly, and only grinned evilly when Johnny's eyes went wide and his mouth dropped open; all thoughts about fighting put aside.

"Kitty..." he gasped, chewing his nails as a nervous gesture. "Aw man! I totally forgot about our date!" His eyes frantically searched for Kitty, complete dread draining into his features at the thought of what his ghost girlfriend might do to him once she caught up.

Sam stood on her board smugly, and for the first time in forever, glad that she and Kitty had a sort of alliance. Kitty had been rather helpful during her grief stages with a certain snowy haired super hero. The ghost woman had had the unfortunate privileged of seeing Sam silently shed tears of sadness one too many nights ago. The ghost girl had been meaning to ambush her but the instant she had caught sight of those big, fat tears rolling down her face and the absolute desolation in her eyes, she couldn't help but to pause and ask what's wrong.

Of course, Sam had retorted rather rudely, whipping out her ecto-gun and threatening to send her back to the Ghost Zone where she belonged if she didn't get a move on.

Kitty had sneered back but obeyed, casually throwing over her shoulder a meaningful, "If you need someone to talk to, I'm all ears!"

And it had come in handy, once.

Only once, and she didn't reveal the true reason for her sadness... only that she was having a few boy problems she couldn't wrap her mind around.

"JOHNNY!! WHERE ARE YOU?! COME OUT HERE YOU STUPID EXCUSE FOR A BOYFRIEND!!"

Sam grinned wickedly. "Its for you." She floated upwards, just in time to avoid Kitty's pounce as she landed on the sidewalk next to Johnny, who was sweating bullets.

"There you are!" Kitty screeched. "I have been looking all over for you! Do you know how embarrassing it is to stand around in public like some stupid, love-struck girl for _THREE HOURS_?! DO YOU?!"

"N-No..." Johnny said fearfully. "I-I was about to –"

"LIAR!!" Kitty cried, her bottom lip jutting out and quivering. Johnny seemingly lost even more of his ghostly colour when he noticed the tears that were forming in her pretty glowing eyes.

"Aw, baby, I swear that I didn't mean to forget!" Johnny turned his eyes towards Sam, who was watching with silent amusement. "It was her fault I was late!"

Kitty directed her rage-filled eyes towards Sam, who lifted her hands up in surrender and said: "Whoa, whoa, whoa! Wait a minute here – _you _were the one who set Shadow free!"

"Oh, yeah? Well _you _were the one who decided to threaten to send me back to the Ghost Zone!" He retorted.

Kitty's furious eyes were back on her once more.

"Yeah, well – _you _were the one flirting with those girls!"

That seemed to be Kitty's limit, for she exploded in an awful rage that nearly made Sam back up and take cover in the comforting haze of the clouds.

"YOU WERE _WHAT?!_" Kitty growled viciously and grabbed Johnny by his collar, bringing him up close to her. "Is what she is saying true, Johnny?"

"I, er, well, you know... no?" he laughed nervously.

Kitty's eyes glowed a dangerous red, which promised hurt and pain, as she grabbed onto his bike and pushed him into the back seat, instead seating herself in front and revving the engine. "You have some explaining to do, you _idiot_!" Kitty soared into the sky, a reluctant and terrified Johnny in her wake, leaving Sam to clutch her stomach in hilarity as they disappeared through a ghost portal that had been opened up near the Nasty Burger sign.

* * *

From above, several hundred feet in air, Danny Phantom watched the scene with troubled eyes. A array of emotions flitted through those jewel emerald eyes of his as he proceeded to duck out of the woman's vantage point once more.

_This isn't good, _Danny thought with a sense of trepidation. He watched the masked woman for another moment, before averting his eyes and floating deeper into the concealment of the clouds hazy streaks. _Who is she? It can't be Valerie... _He watched the lithe girl tap her board once with the heel of her right foot. _She's too small to be Valerie. Her skin's too pale, too, _he observed, trailing his eyes over the strip of flesh that she'd allow to show; just below the tip of her nose.

She sped away from his sharp eyes just milliseconds after.

_Who is she? _

"Master?"

Danny was startled out of his thoughts. "Lyda? What are you doing out here?"

Lyda floated beside Danny, her head bowed in respect.

Danny flushed red and scratched the back of his head, a nervous trademark of his. "Uh, hey, you don't have to call me master... we-we aren't on stage or anything," he smiled anxiously.

Lyda directed her big, green eyes towards Danny, staring dead straight into his own glowing pupils. She spoke with the seriousness of death. "You saved me from Freakshow, Master Danny. I do not know how I could ever repay you for such a noble deed..."

"Er, it's just—it wasn't right!" Danny quickly amended, scratching the back of his head even more furiously now. "Anybody would have done what I did, Lyda, had they the right equipment." He raised his palm, eliciting a menacing, green, glow from it. "And I just so happened to have the right things needed." His smile was pained, and it did not settle well with the female ghost.

She subconsciously floated closer to the troubled soul, reaching out to grasp his equally frigid hand; but the sheer iciness of it was lost to her, for her own hand was as cold and dead as his. "Mast—"

"Please, call me Danny." He replied tiredly, pushing her hand away from his. "Come on, let's head back to the Tent before everyone else starts wondering where we are again."

He didn't glance at her again as he flew off towards the humongous tent located in Amity's most dreary and desolate areas: the cemetery.

She didn't question how he was avoiding his gaze. She just followed silently, simply glad to be of some comfort to Danny.

He didn't leave her side for the entire time spent with the rest of the ghosts, only when midnight came and everyone headed off to their sleeping quarters did Danny truly leave her side.

She was content just being near Danny.

* * *

"How could you let him escape, Sam?!" Valerie's vicious voice rang throughout the Foley household. Sam winced and pressed the glass of cool lemonade against her temple, annoyed that she was being told off by her best friend's girlfriend.

Speaking of said best friend, he was currently sitting across from her, diligently sipping his warm cocoa and pointedly ignoring both Sam and Valerie.

Coward.

"Because I felt like it!" Sam retorted, feeling her nerves on end. She tuned out the woman's infuriated voice again and pondered about the sick feeling she had felt deep inside her gut. She felt as if she was being watched and not in the good way. Though she had checked the radar built into her helmet time and time again she could not even see a smidgen of a ghosts magnetic signature anywhere.

Sam leaned against her knuckles, taking a sip of her drink and gritting her teeth when Valerie none-too-gently snatched the glass from her hold.

"Pay attention to me, Sam!" Val shouted, setting her straight for a moment. "I'm not joking around here – you can't just let every ghost you come across to go easy."

"I don't let every ghost I come across to go easy and you damn well know it," she replied sharply. Sam stood up and grabbed her coat from behind the chair. "It's getting late – I'm leaving."

"Oh, no you don't you little bit—"

"Whoaaa, there Val!" Tucker intersected, grinning nervously as the two women stared each other down. "I think Sam has learned her lesson, right, Sam?" He shifted his eyes towards mentioned girl, only to swallow when she didn't show any signs of cooperating.

Sam smirked darkly. "What lesson? All I could hear was an annoying buzzing in my ear." She waved haughtily at Valerie, who looked as if she were to blow up at any moment, and strode to the door. "See you two tomorrow." She shut the door behind her.

Valerie gripped the top of the chair tightly, nearly crushing it in her palm. Tucker could hear the wood from the weak chairs handle slowly begin to chip with the pressure of her sharp finger nails. Suddenly, the pressure receded, and Valerie visibly slumped.

She pushed the chair back with a loud screech and sat down heavily.

"These fights..." she said, seemingly to herself, "they're getting worse."

Tucker quietly agreed with the woman. Sam and Valerie had never really gotten along as well as most had perceived. Usually it was Sam's reckless and easy-going behavior that set Valerie off. Tucker knew for certain that Sam was anything but reckless – she was the most serious, down-to-earth, person Tucker knew. But that didn't mean that Valerie agreed with Sam's Ghost Hunting methods.

Valerie was set on locking up every single ghost that dare tread down the same path as she.

Sam was set on sending any ghost that crossed that delicately placed line she personally drew: _fight me and you'll get your ass sent to the Ghost Zone. Don't, and you'll be safe to wonder the streets of Amity Park... for now._

It was what she said everytime to all of them; even those that had fought her and lost. Sam had the belief that every ghost was to be treated as an equal. She said that no ghost, unless she knew he was wickedly evil, should be denied the right to walk amongst the living.

"_They died here. And for some sick reason they haven't been able to move onto that 'Heaven' or 'Hell' that we all talk about. They should at least be able to hang around us... even for a little while. Who knows? Maybe then they'll be able to discover what has kept them from moving on so long."_

And she had a point... somewhat.

Most of the ghosts Danny had fought in their younger years were tied to the living by their obsessions towards objects. Skulker and his hunting, Ember and her music, Vlad and his desire for Maddie Fenton... and world domination.

They were all obsessions, which lead to Tucker's thoughts veering towards a certain 'lost' Fenton...

_Danny's half-ghost... does that mean that he has an obsession too? _Tucker was skeptical about this theory, considering that he was still half-human, half-alive, and surely his human side would keep his less-than-human side in place. But the doubt still lingered. What if Danny _did_ have an obsession?

_What if he can't move on once he—_Tucker didn't want to think about it. He instead focused on what could _be _his obsession?

_Well... _Tucker grinned wryly. _Maybe it could be his total disregard for himself in order to save others? Hero-complex. _Tucker racked his brain a couple of more reasons but he couldn't find a single one. What other reason would he have for lingering behind? That is, if he ever _did_.

Then an image – a memory – came to mind. It came with startling such clarity; right down to the very last detail. It was one of their rather interesting adventures with some random ghost just a few days after the Freakshow incident... Sam had gotten the edge of her skirt caught on the edge of an upturned screw inside a warehouse and she couldn't get it undone in time to avoid the ghosts rather hard punch. She had been socked in the stomach, and Tucker was sure Danny saw red that day. It was what prompted him to believe that maybe all that teasing about Danny and Sam had some truth in it.

Danny had gotten... for lack of better word, _stronger. _It was as if he had time to train himself, because suddenly his ecto-blasts were much brighter, much more powerful. Suddenly, he could grab that ghost by the dingy clothes he was dressed in and throw him over his head and towards a wall. Suddenly, when his fist connected with the wall behind the ghost, narrowly missing it's head, Danny managed to punch a hole straight throw it; something he hadn't been able to do before even if he tried.

And it all went away just as quickly once he found that Sam was alright; just a little winded.

Tucker had whipped out his PDA and marked it into his digital journal under _Strange & Rare Occurrences... _which was pretty much filled up with several journal entries. But it was really something worth noting; not just some random thing that had happened and could probably be explained, ironically, scientifically by Sam or even Danny.

"_It's the dark – it plays tricks on you."_

"_Come on, Tuck, it's a coincidence!"_

"_He was just mad, that's all – adrenaline rush... wait, do ghosts even _have _adrenaline glands? All well, he was just angry."_

"_The light, you know, since the warehouse was close to the dock the ships' lights' must've thrown you off."_

But Tucker wasn't swayed by his friend's deft explanations. He knew what he saw, even had proof with the damaged wall.

This was what made Tucker believe that maybe Danny's ghostly obsession was none other than...

"Valerie," Tucker said after a while. Val lifted her head, usually vibrant eyes drawn down to a tired glow. "About Danny... are you still taking Sam to Circus Gothica?"

"Of course, Tucker," Val replied, scuffing her shoes against the tile of the floor. "Why?"

"When were you going to take her?" Tuck mumbled, grabbing his own glass and swirling the contents inside.

"Um, this upcoming Saturday."

_Two weeks before Halloween, _Tucker thought grimly. "I don't think that's a good idea."

"Why? She seems glum, glummer than usual and it's the best way to take her mind off our little... argument." Valerie explained rationally.

"I know but... I – call it a premonition, but I don't think you should take Sam on Saturday," upon seeing his girlfriend's suspicious and rather angry look, he added, "You know! Halloween and all! Don't all Goths like to get freaky with the supernatural... erm, on Halloween?" His voice pitched and squeaked towards the end, but Valerie seemed to think it was a good idea as well.

"Hmm, I'll think about that," Val replied rather distantly, picking at a scar she had gotten from falling off of her hover board. "Hey, Tuck, it's getting late and I have to go.. I'll see you tomorrow?"

"Yeah, er, alright – here let me walk you –"

"No." Val said quickly – sharply – but added in a sweeter tone: "No, Tuck; no thanks. I just have to walk all this anger out, ya know? Before I decide you're annoying me and take it out on you," she teased, hopelessly.

Tucker watched helplessly as his girlfriend left without even a goodnight kiss. "Uh, er, call me?"

Val shut the door behind her silently in reply.

* * *

_**A/N: Sorry for the late update, as most of you know, I couldn't update before since I was long gone at some distant and foreign place... meh, it was Mexico. It's not such a big deal lol. I ended up **not **taking my laptop, resorting instead of taking a notebook and training myself into writing at fast speeds!**_

_**... Let's just say it didn't turn as well as I had thought it would.**_

_**My hand cramped up a lot and my mind was merciless as it bombarded me with ideas. It was painful since I couldn't write them all down; I ended up using my ipod touch as a means to write down my story ideas. I have about 5 drafts labeled 'CIRQUE BERSERK DRAFT – TAKE 1' and so on xD**_

_**So training my hand didn't go as well as I had planned... what did, though, is my ideas for this story! I've got some more tricks up my sleeve.**_

_**Maybe some of you noticed, maybe some of you didn't, but I tried to be a little more... detailed this time around. All thanks to **TableDeskChair. **For some reason, her comment '...your phrasing could be a bit more concise' lit up a bulb in my head that shouted 'DETAIL! YOU HEARD THE LADY, STOP SQUISHING SO MUCH DAMN STUFF INTO LITTLE WORDS! DRAG IT OUT, WOMAN!' XD**_

_**I quite enjoy dragging things out but another person had flamed me in another one of my fictions stating that my detail was much too, for lack of better word, 'cliché'. Kinda depressed me, so I quit adding as much detail as I wanted.**_

_**I hope this is better! Review and tell me what you think!**_

_Scarlett._


	7. Chapter 7

_**Cirque Berserk**_

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_**.**_

_**7  
**__**Danny Phantom Returns**_

**_._**

**_._**

**_._**

Danny slumped against the door in his room two days after the supposed 'Ghost Hunter' incident that still plagued his thoughts twenty-four seven.

The rehearsal had taken a lot more out of Danny than it usually did, mostly because he wanted to straighten out some kinks in his performance and mostly because he desperately wanted it to be _perfect. _

He stubbornly ignored the little voice in his head that shouted, y_ou're doing this for Sam, aren't you? _and continued to drag himself to his bed, where he flopped backwards and released a weary breath of relief.

Another long day had ended.

Tucker had visited him often enough to assure him that their friendship, though still awkward, hadn't drifted to the point of no return. Valerie had even come along with Tucker on one of his visits and he took great amusement in watching his old friend-slash-ghost-hunting-rival melt from surprise, to shock, to utter disbelief at his new appearance.

She even stammered something that sounded strangely like, "W-what happened to you!?" only it was lost in the jumble of other half-stuttered, half-mumbled words she had said.

Tucker and him laughed so hard when he showed her the fake tattoo of the Nasty Burger logo he had posted on his triceps before her arrival that he was sure he busted a gut in that short time.

Needless to say, Valerie was not pleased. And she expressed it so when she stamped on Tuckers foot before sweetly asking (or at least she thought it was sweet, to Danny it sounded like death sentence) what he had been up to in the last couple of years.

Danny had given her the short-cut, edited, version of what he told Tucker in a time span of five minutes.

_All those years lying through my teeth about being a halfa really pay off, _he mused tiredly, closing his eyes and shifting into a more comfortable position. _Good thing tomorrow there's no rehearsal – I don't think I could take another fireball aimed at me... _

Just as he was beginning to drift off, to drop the day like a hot coal, he breathed a wisp of blue breath, and he instantly knew there would be no sleep that night.

Year's of transformation allowed him to quickly change into his alter-ego, Danny Phantom, without a seconds hesitation. It was like second-nature to him now; like breathing. Soon he was flying outside, the chilly night air oddly comforting as he tried to located the disturbance.

He saw it in a form of a shadow, splashed across the wall of a rather old building. Every angle seemed enhanced, sharper, as it drifted closer and closer to an unsuspecting civilian. But something felt strange about this entity, something felt wrong about it.

Danny perused it the best he could, as whenever a shadow crossed it path – even a little bit – it seemed to disappear totally and appear in a different place. It looked like a normal ghost from the Ghost Zone. In fact, it looked exactly like those shadow ghosts that dwelled in the deeper, darker, damper parts of the Ghost Zone – the parts that many ghostly friends had told him to never wonder about on his own.

He had asked why many times.

They refused to say a thing.

The civilian checked his watch repeatedly, tapping his foot as he impatiently waited for the bus to arrive and take him to his desired destination. He was oblivious to the nearing ghost. Danny nearly winced when the man took notice of the growing shadow; it's silhouetted fangs dripping with saliva as it raised on clawed hand, as if to swipe.

The instant the man screamed, however, the shadow reclined, receding it's large nails and shrinking against a corner. It seemed to almost writhe in pain at the man's increasing scream. It raked it's nails against the ground, where deep lines were drawn before completely disappearing from sight as a bird's small shadow overlapped it.

_Well, that was weird, _he scratched his chin, searching for the strange ghost with no luck. _All well, maybe now I could get some sleep—_

"AHH! GHOST!"

"Where!?" With an ecto-blast ready to launch at a seconds notice, Danny quickly scanned the area before the noticed that the same man was now pointing at him, a terrified expression on his face, and rapidly calling out for... Black Rose.

His ecto-blast was put out with a puff.

_Geez, not her again, _he grumbled internally. "Sir, I'm here to help you, not harm you."

"GHOST! GHOST! HELP! GHOST! BLACK ROSE! HELP!"

"Great," Danny muttered, scowling."Why do I always get the crazies?" He tried once more, his tone more forceful. "Sir! I'm only trying to _help _you! There was a ghost stalking you and it—"

"S-Stalking me?!" the man repeated, horrified.

"Yes... but it seems gone now," Danny gave the wall a quick glance. "I think it was just a harmless ghost. Amity Park has a lot of those." Danny didn't want to think about the disembodied entities he usually heard whenever he walked by rather deserted areas. Sometimes he could even see misty bodies or limbs. Ever since he had improved his ghostly abilities, he had been more sensitive to those ghosts that had no definite shape; that simply wondered around a particular area, mourning some tragedy Danny never tried to puzzle out.

The first time he had seen one, which he would say was about two years ago, he had nearly pissed his pants. A limb had been protruding from a cement wall, it's finger's twitching every couple of seconds; as if trying to grasp something untrappable.

Lydia had been there with him when it happened, having gone intangible, and worriedly fussed over him when he had fallen on his behind, pointing at the wall with wide, shocked eyes. He wasn't frightened—alright, maybe he was frightened, but he had gotten over it quickly enough when people stopped what they were doing to stare at him.

Lydia had sternly refused to let him walk around that part of Denver since.

He supposed it was these ghosts that all those so-called "Ghost Hunters" tried to 'connect' or 'talk' to in those shows he watched on TV. Those unfortunate lost souls, those that could not "move on".

The man squinted his eyes, edging closer to him. "Hey... I recognize you."

Danny smiled hopefully.

"Inviso-Bill! That's who you are, right? WHAAA! HELP BLACK ROSE! THERE'S A MURDEROUS GHOST ON THE LOOSE AGAIN!" The man slammed his back onto the wall, clawing his hands into the coarse bricks and trembling violently.

Danny resisted the urge to face-palm himself.

So this is what he was now: a murderous ghost, who stalked unsuspecting citizens and literally risked his undead life to save them. How lovely.

_Did everyone get stupider while I was away? _He thought, annoyed. _Because last time I checked, I was the town hero._

"My name isn't Inviso-Bill," he corrected, blandly. "It's Danny. Danny Phantom."

"D-Danny... Phantom?" he queried, eying Danny with skeptical eyes.

"Yeah, Danny Phantom. You know, that ghost that usually saved the town from evil ghosts bent on world domination some five years back? Yeah, him. I'm back." _maybe for good this time, _he added mentally.

"Wait," he said, shaking a finger at Danny. "You're that ghost that saved me from that genie!"

Danny tried to recall that particular memory but found himself unable too; he had saved too many people to really remember any of them. He felt somewhat guilty with this new piece of information – shouldn't he at least be able to recall something like this?

_I guess not, _Danny thought, downcast. _Too much has happened over the years.. my memories just get overwrote with new ones over and over again. _This new thought bothered him. His memories... slowly ceased to exist and were replaced with new ones.

_If I never came back, _he thought, honestly, feeling something unpleasant and cold throb in his chest. _if I made an effort to forget... would that mean I would be able to forget Tucker? Valerie?... Sam?_

His neck prickled suddenly.

Danny felt that unnerving familiar sensation riding up his back, clawing it's icy nails into his back. He dodged to the right, just barely avoiding a bright red blast of energy. He glared up to the perpetrator and intensified it when he saw who it was.

"So, you're the great Black Rose," he greeted nastily. "Here to exterminate me, too?"

The person only floated a few feet away from him, holding a rather familiar device in her hand...

His eyes narrowed at the label.

Fenton Works.

_So she know's my family, _he retreated a few more feet, cautious when she simply stood on her board and stared at him. Behind that sleek sheet of darkened glass, Sam Manson stood stupefied.

She felt bolted to the very board that usually helped her stay alive during her ghostly fights. She felt certain that if Vlad, Ember, Technus – any one of her enemies – sneaked up behind her, she would not be able to defend herself.

This startling vulnerability made a flare of indignation well inside her.

It only grew with intensity when she realized the person who did this to her – without even knowing it – had been gone for nearly five years. Had left them, her, for his own selfish reasons; had left her hanging on the line in the scorching hot sun.

Was she really that weak against him? To drop down all those walls she had carefully sculpted around the bounds of her heart without a seconds hesitation? To accept him back into her life, no strings attached, after what he did to her?

_Stop it, _she thought, shakily. _Don't do this to yourself – he's not worth it. You're stronger than this- fight it. He doesn't deserve it. He'll only desert you in the end, Sam, he's beyond your reach now. Get over it, you wussy!_

Right now, she had no time to focus on the jagged edges of her heart. Right now, she had to figure out why he did not register on her Ghost Sensor. Right now, she had to figure out what he was doing out here, at one am in the morning.

She didn't have time for this romance crap.

Sam had been patrolling the city later than she normally did – mostly because of the lack-of-sleep – when she had heard this man's panicked cries for help; _her _help in particular. She had checked and rechecked her Ghost Sensor but found not one sign of a ghost signature on it. She figured that the man had gotten a minor scare, considering he was walking around a rather lonesome area of Amity Park, and marked it off as a ghost attack.

It had happened many times before, these false alarms.

The Ghost Raids had left most of Amity Park rather skittish and paranoid.

But then she saw _him_.

He was floating in the air, arms crossed and standing as if he was on solid ground. He didn't move at all as he floated, not like he did when he was teenager. He was perfectly still and his stark white hair was longer than usual – it seemed tied into a small pony tail at the nape of his neck, strangely. The suit that before made him look slightly scrawny seem to barely conceal the chiseled body he now had. It seemed almost naughty how tight it was on him. He had really grown over the years, in more way than one.

She could clearly trace every muscle he moved, whether it be consciously or subconsciously, and she felt the stabs of longing pierce their way into her chest. She gripped the gun tightly and reprimanded herself for such unorthodox thoughts but even that didn't help the array of ideas that bounced around inside her head incessantly.

_Danny's... _Sam thought, almost dreamily. _Danny's been... working out. _She greedily took in his perfect posture, his perfect body. But this only seemed to hurt her more than relieve her. She averted her gaze, biting the inside of her cheek to keep her emotions in place.

Sometime she wondered if she was one of those kinky goth chicks – the one's the digged those shackles and chains and cuffs. A masochistic goth, because of how she let herself be deluded by her dishonest thoughts.

It made a ripple of amusement shake through her. A ripple of twisted amusement.

Maybe she really was a masochistic goth...

"Step away from the civilian, ghost," Sam commanded, raising her weapon to eye level. Stupid thoughts... Danny made her think stupid, idiotic, asinine, thoughts. Unneeded thoughts.

He always burdened her, she really had to get over this stupid emotion she held for him; that torch she constantly kindled for him.

Danny was no different than the rest of the ghosts she had battled and exterminated.

He was technically half-dead. What's the difference if she took care of whatever life he had within him?

He was a ghost, just like the rest. He had an obsession, just like the rest. He had a mischievous streak, just like the rest. Because Sam very well knew that after the accident in the Fenton's Lab, where his DNA had been altered to fit with that of a ghosts, Danny had become slightly more... out-going.

He enjoyed trickery and pranks.

He liked scaring people.

He liked making them uncomfortable with his powers, with his strength, which he would do a lot when they were younger. He always said he was joking.

Sam had her doubts.

But her own callousness made her heart ache brutally: how could she think that? Kill whatever humanity Danny still held? Somehow the thought of Danny actually _dying _made her want to buckle her knee's and clutch her chest.

She felt her eyes sting at the thought, something that only made her wrath intensify.

She really was no different than how she was five years ago...

"Hello?" Danny said, tone slick with animosity. "Anyone in there? For a professional Ghost Hunter, you're not very good. I could take you out right now without even lifting a finger and you wouldn't even know it."

"Oh?" Sam said, forgetting her thoughts momentarily.

"I'm not bluffing," Danny said, turning to face her; a dark emotion swirling in his emerald eyes. "I really could."

"Right," she said flatly, holding out her gun. "I'm sure you can." _I really am sure you can._

He smirked, darkly, something that didn't settle well with her. "Go ahead. Shoot me. I assure you the most I'd get is a good push – if not a shallow scratch. Most ghost hunting weapons don't work on me anymore," he eyed her helmet. "I bet I don't even register in your system."

"How would you know, ghost?" Sam continued, scowling. Well, Danny didn't change _that _much; he was still liked to flaunt his strength.

"Because many people have tried to capture me before," he grinned, amused by this. Sam felt something close to dread stitch inside the pit of her stomach. He had been hunted before? People had tried to... _exterminate _him before? "Loads of them fail – human weapons are almost laughable! They never work."

_Human weapons? _Sam felt panic rise, something uncommon for her. She hadn't felt this emotion in a long time, not since Valerie had very nearly broke her neck during one of their battles against Technus three years ago. _Human. Why did he use this word? Danny, don't you know: you're human too! Why would you—?_

"These weapons are slightly different than most. If I shot you, it would actually hurt. A lot." Sam clicked the safety off and slid her finger against the trigger. "Ask any ghost who's picked a fight with me, they'd tell you."

"Like I said before, I can take you out before you could blink."

"You don't know how overused that line is," she sneered, wishing she had the nerve to take off her helmet and scold him; watch the surprise wash over his features. Use that surprise to her advantage and yell everything she had wanted to tell him; every line she had rehearsed over and over again in her head."I've heard it so many times – sorry to say it's lost it's luster."

He smirked. "Well, this time it'll be for real, don't worry." He lifted his hand and it glowed an abnormal magenta. Sam felt her stomach ache with the multitude of emotions racing through her body. Why was his ecto-blast _red_? She could see stripes of black intermingle with the supernatural energy. "I promise," he said wickedly.

_Why does this feel so wrong?_

"Try me," she replied with a confidence she only wished she had. She shouldn't have said that, she knew. She shouldn't have egged him on. Danny seemed... dangerous now. Lethal, almost. Somehow, Sam knew that he really would hurt her if he felt threatened. And that thought frightened her the most because the Danny she knew wouldn't even _think _about hurting another person without a legit reason, and that didn't include some mindless prattle.

But here they were, ready to take one another out at a seconds notice.

"Scared yet?" he asked, eerily amused, clenching his fist, letting her see as it smoked before disappearing in a swirl of black.

"Not even close, ghost," she reloaded her gun for extra-measure, but felt the beginnings of true fright begin to leak into her system. She could feel that burst of adrenaline start to flood her veins and she could feel the blood pound through her temples as her breathing got heavier.

Fight-or-Flight?

Right then, she felt like ditching her own faithful weapon and hightailing right out of there.

So, flight it was...

Danny stared stonily at her before breaking it with a lopsided smile; completely shattering the intimidating, frightening charade he had kept going. "Wow, you really are tough. Most people usually run away by this time! Sweet, I knew there was a person out there who could hold out!" he commented airily, the undercurrent of stiffness in his voice not lost to Sam.

But that was all it took for the panic to melt into nothing but relief. This was the Danny she remembered. The carefree, adorable and compassionate boy from her childhood. The one that made her feel the butterflied in her stomach and made her blush with every fond smile. This was the boy she had fallen in love with.

But it only lasted a split second.

Next thing she knew, Danny was rocketing straight toward her, that same, horrifying, mold of red energy glowing menacingly in the palm of his white-gloved hand.

* * *

_**A/N: I am really sorry for this ubber late update. I actually have no actual excuse and I'll be brutally honest with you guys: I got some writers block and decided that the chapter I had prewritten wasn't going to fit with the plot I had in mind so I discarded and started over again. I ended up getting stumped half-way through. I mean, I can't very well stuff this chapter full of twists so I decided to mark this off as a filler of sorts.**_

_**Besides, I want Danny and Sam to have some sort of rivalry before Danny discovers her identity. I think it'd be fun to mess with him this way D**_

_**Please review! It'd enthuse me enough to post up the next chapter xD**_

_Scarlett._


	8. Chapter 8

_**Cirque Berserk**_

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_**8  
**__**Shadow Dwellers**_

There was something behind her, she could feel it. It wasn't a person, a person did not make the hairs on the back of her neck stand. A person did not make her stomach feel sick and her head spin. No, this was not a person; not human at all. Sam reminded herself that she was hovering twenty feet off the ground, too, so there was absolutely no way a human could be standing behind her, anyways.

There was only one choice left: a ghost.

_Run, _Her mind yelled, wildly. _RUN!!_

But Danny was still careening towards her at breakneck speed...

She could still see him, coming at her with that red ball of flames brightly aimed at her. If he could raise his hand a little bit, just an inch, he would be able to strike her in the heart. Maybe he was going to raise it once he was close enough to get a clean shot. These were the thoughts that rushed through her mind as Danny came closer and closer and closer.

The presence behind her had become more defined, almost engulfing her in a sphere of arctic cold. Her weapon was pointed in front of her and she could see a large shadow encase it within it's darkness. The tip of her ectoplasmic gun, which usually released a whisper of steam from the chemicals reaction inside it, seemed to frost over with ice.

"MOVE, IDIOT!" Danny shouted, suddenly in front of her, raising his ecto-blast for a strike. But he didn't strike her, to her dull surprise, rather he grabbed her and turned her intangible. The familiar tingle swept through her body as she became invisible; the tingle she used to enjoy feeling when they were younger, when everything was just black and white and she did not need to roam in these shades of gray as she did so much nowadays.

Danny shoved her behind him and, shockingly, she still floated despite being out of Danny's grip. But before these rushing thoughts could compute in her mind she was staring at it. The thing that had been behind her, revealing a nasty row of sharp teeth and a snake-like tongue, which whipped out this way and that.

A shadow.

But it wasn't like Johnny 13's shadow: large, dumb, and basically harmless. This shadow sent a shiver down her spine, dropped a cold bucket of water atop her head, and made her recoil in what seemed like fear. She tried to back away from the shadow, which grew wide and tall before her, baring teeth she could only see against the barren wall.

She could hear it hiss, the high and menacing hiss that promised pain and death if she got too close.

The instant Danny shot at it, though, it seemed to hurt. It growled viciously, and if it had eyes it would glare with vindictive hate, and vanished before her very eyes.

Sam flicked her eyes to her built-in Ghost Sensor.

It did not register.

Neither Danny nor the mysterious shadow ghost.

Danny lowered his hand and frowned. "Damn," he muttered, "got away again." He turned, his shoulder's slouched in disgruntlement, and asked her: "Are you okay?"

Sam was stumped for a moment before answering. "Um, yeah. Yeah, I am now." She looked at her hands, at the sharp outline her eyes could barely make out, indicating her temporary nonexistence from the world.

"Oh, sorry." Danny drew near and touched her, his hand cold and stiff, and she flinched away from his touch. But the simple tap breathed life back into her, made her skin regain feeling and her lungs accept air freely. Her hair came alive and rustled lightly with the wind and her hands felt suddenly freezing.

But her arm, the spot where Danny's fingertips had brushed, still burned with the dead touch.

"What was that?" Sam asked after a moment of silence.

"Oh, er, I sort of turned you invisible—"

"No!" Sam growled, "that thing! That shadow!"

"Oh. That." Danny laughed sheepishly. "Well, I honestly don't know," he confessed, scratching his head. "All I know is that most of the ghosts in the Ghost Zone fear it like crazy. I can't get a word out of them without one of them throwing a tantrum or going hysterical."

"Then it must be dangerous," Sam deduced, subtly touching her waist, where her belt seemed to be coming loose. She tried strapping it on tighter and couldn't help but to feel self-conscious when Danny looked at her with a cocked brow.

"Maybe," Danny conceded. "But the important question is: what is it doing here? Those shadows should only exist in the deepest part of the Ghost Zone; they shouldn't be roaming around freely in this realm..."

"How do you know that?" Sam asked, skeptical. "For all we know, they could have been around far longer than the both of us have! Perhaps they just come out during this time?" She checked her watch."It's going to be three am. Right now is the darkest time of the night."

"You could be right," Danny said, almost casually. "But I highly doubt they only come out during the night."

"Well, they _are_ shadows."

"Exactly. They need a source of light," he pointed to the full moon, shining down upon them with it's milky light. "And they have most of it today of all days. The full moon."

Sam scowled. He was right... for once.

When had Danny gotten perception?

"Whatever." Sam grumped and turned her hovercraft around, allowing her back to face him. "Just don't get in my way again, Ghost."

"What the hell?!" she vaguely heard Danny yell at her retreating form. "A nice 'thank you' would be appreciated, you know!!"

She promptly flipped him the bird.

* * *

_Bang, bang, bang._

There was a snore.

_Bang, bang._

A groan sliced the silence and eventually a hand peeked out from the covered to turn on the lamp. A soft light illuminated the room, revealing one very displeased Tucker Foley.

"Someone better be dead," Tucker growled as he opened his eyes, staring at the digital clock that sat on his night table and read: three forty five. There was more banging and he resisted the urge to sigh as he slowly sat up and plucked on his glasses.

He slouched to the door and when he threw it open, came face-to-face with an ashen and wide-eyed Sam Manson. She pushed through him and stumbled to his couch, where she collapsed and smashed a pillow over her face within seconds.

"Sam?" Tucker asked, breaking the expanding silence. "Do you know what time is it?"

"Four in the morning," came her muffled reply. "I know."

"Then it better be important because I have a huge test tomorrow," he paused, "er, today. Later on. Anyways, why are you here?"

"It's Danny," she said, hearing him suck in a sharp breath. "I was patrolling the city like I usually do and I was about to go home, I heard some yelling... something attacked that person, Tucker, and it did not register in my Ghost Sensor."

"Huh?" Tucker's brows furrowed. "Whoa, whoa, rewind. Attack who?"

"That's not important," Sam said. "But that ghost didn't register on my sensor! Neither did Danny!"

"That's impossible, I personally designed that little piece of genius and I made sure to record all known ghost signatures! I even used Mr and Mrs. Fenton's data! There is no way you could not have—"

"But Danny and that shadow didn't register!" Sam insisted. "I checked, Tuck, and I didn't _see _anything. Not even a bump."

Tucker slowly sat down across from her, stumped. "That's strange," he replied after a while. "I can understand why Danny wouldn't show up, though."

Sam peeked from under her pillow, patiently waiting for him to continue.

"Danny is a special case," Tucker started. "He's a halfa – half ghost, half human – and his ghost signature changes with every new power spike he experiences."

"Power spike?" she asked carefully.

"It's just codename for new power or every time he grows stronger, which is a daily occurrence. Every time Danny masters a new power, his power jumps up dramatically. I've tried to add Danny to the new Ghost Sensor I've been making for you but every time he trains, his signature becomes blurry and eventually disappears from the screen altogether. I can only chalk it up to his training regiment. He's been trying to master his telepathy—"

"T-Telepathy!?" Sam stammered, sitting up in a hurry. "You mean... he can read minds?!"

Tucker stared at her seriously for a moment before breaking out into a laugh. Sam stared, displeased by his mocking laughter, and waited impatiently for him to stop laughing. But when he did, her mood only blackened. "Mind reading?! What're you afraid of, he'll catch you thinking things you shouldn't be thinking of?" he teased, barely dodging a pillow.

"Shut up, Tucker." Sam growled.

"Yeah, well, anyways," Tucker continued, wisely deciding to drop the subject at hand for another. "To keep Danny on your Ghost Sensor requires updating his profile almost daily and I find that to be a pain so he will never appear on your screen. The shadows, though... what do you mean by 'shadow' exactly?"

"It's exactly what it means," Sam said. "You can't see their form like the other ghosts we encounter. It seems as if you can only see them when light indirectly hits them, casting a shadow on the ground or against a wall," Sam thinned her lips, looking at her hands. "But... it's not right."

"What's not right?"

She crossed her arms against her chest, in an almost protective gesture. "Those shadows, somethings not right with them. They don't feel like normal ghosts... there's something truly evil about those things. But here's the part that doesn't add up: when Danny attacked them they backed off. It was as if they wanted to fight back but couldn't, as if..."

"... something was holding them back," Tucker finished for her, tapping a finger against his chin in thought. "You're right, that _is_ weird."

"Yeah, and when I asked Danny what they were, he told me that many of the ghosts in the Ghost Zone were terrified of them. He told me that they dwelled in the deepest, darkest, parts of the Ghost Zone and almost everyone avoids them... for those things to be out here, in the human world, something must have happened to attract their attention."

"Well, it's already general knowledge that random rips in dimensions appear all over the world," Tucker said, sinking deeper into his chair. "Most of those rips gather here, in Amity Park, and they usually close up before we discover where they are. These rips open passages for all spectral entities to enter or exit from – it's fair game for all ghosts who happen to be in the area when the rip appears."

"So, what you're tying to say is that these shadow ghost things wizened up and decided to take a stroll out the rips?" Sam said, sarcasm dripping heavily off her words. "Brilliant, Tuck, I couldn't have said it better myself."

"It wouldn't be surprising if these shadow ghosts decided to wonder our world for a while," Tucker continued, as if Sam had never spoken. "But what _is_ curious is, why now? These tears between worlds have been happening for as long as both worlds have existed, so why now?"

"I have a theory," Sam pipped, raising her hand to mock Tucker, who only rose a brow and nodded his head. She rolled her eyes and let her arm drop. "They've always been here."

"Impossible," Tucker dismissed before she could even continue.

"Why is it so impossible?!" Sam steamed, glaring daggers at the African American. "Look, how do we even know they haven't been strolling to and from worlds all this time?! They don't register on our technology so we have no evidence to support your argument."

"Neither can it support yours," Tucker shot back." But I highly doubt that those shadows have been going to and fro worlds – we would have gotten word of their appearances."

"True, but why? The citizens from Amity Park have already seen almost every ghost imaginable, why would this one be any more important?"

"Because you said you felt something evil from it, right? So, of course someone else—"

"Tucker, nearly everyone who spies ghosts screams bloody murder," Sam replied dryly.

Tucker scowled but relented. "Alright, so what ifthese shadow ghosts _have _been going to and fro worlds like you oh-so eloquently put." He crossed his arms. "Then what?"

"Then that means..." Sam glanced up at the clock in thought, watching as the second hand moved a fraction. "I'm not sure, perhaps they really _are _just like the rest of the ghosts we encounter. But just scarier?"

"But they can't be," Tucker persisted. "You just said that almost every ghost from the Ghost Zone fears them – there has to be a reason why and they're not too keen on telling us any time soon," Tucker blew a puff of air, miffed by the way they were going in circles.

"There's only one way to find out," Sam said slyly, after a second of thought. "I'm going to ask some of my supernatural friends!"

"Supernatural friends?" Tucker repeated, skeptically. "_You _have friends? Aside from Val, Star and I?"

She shot him a dirty look. "Thanks, Tucker. Real nice self-esteem boost right there."

"Fine," he sighed, rubbing his eyes warily. "Just, please, try to keep your visits at a _reasonable _time. It's going to be five in the morning! Ugh, I am so gonna' fail this exam..."

"You can do it, Tuck," Sam encouraged absentmindedly. "There hasn't been an exam yet that you haven't aced."

"Yeah, there hasn't, has there?" There was a swell of pride in his tone.

"Yup," Sam stood up and stretched her arms above her head. "Anyways, I'll ask Kitty if she knows anything about these mysterious 'shadow ghosts' before tomorrow night. See ya' later Tucker! Good luck on your test!" Sam was just about to walk out the door when her friends quiet statement stopped her in her tracks.

"So, you saw Danny, huh?"

"... Yeah, what about it?"

"What did he say to you?"

Sam cast her eyes downward, to the mat she was standing on. "Nothing. Nothing important. He didn't even know it was me."

"What? How?!"

Sam reached up and pressed the button on her helmet, initiating the switch that deployed the clean, sleek, glass across her eyes. Immediately, her gaze was met with the spiral of light and numbers that scrolled down one side of the glass; indicating the time, ghost activity, and any other data she would need during her patrols and even battles. The glass itself was tinted, dimming everything considerably.

She turned to Tucker, who was looking rather apprehensive at her silence, and said, "I guess he can't recognize an old friend, huh?"

"Sam, it's not—"

"No." She demanded. "Stop. I don't want to hear it." Her voice was like steel. "If Danny can't recognize me with this stupid helmet on then he was never really a friend in the first place. He never cared."

"You know that's not true," Tucker said, accusingly. "Sam, look, it's time to move on. You have to let go of this petty grudge you hold against—"

"Petty!?" Sam bellowed, spinning on her heel to send her friend a frigid glare. "Petty? You call seeing your best friend since preschool let _you fall to your_ _death_ petty? I cannot believe you just said that, Tucker! You _saw _him," she spat. "You saw him too and you saw how he just let us _fall_!"

"He was being controlled by Freak Show!"

"He was _letting_ himself be controlled!" Sam shot back. "We both know that he could have broken free from his grasp at any time but he didn't!"

"Sam! Do you know how lunatic that sounds? Of course Danny couldn't break free because if he _could_ don't you think he would have?" Tucker sounded desperate for her to understand how twisted her logic really was. How far she had let her lies get. "You're deluding yourself – Danny could not have, for the life in him, literally, broken free from his control!"

"He had the staff," Sam bit out. "He was in control of himself when it happened. But he chose that dumb... dumb _stick _instead of his best friends!"

Sam was already out the door by the time Tucker managed to run to the threshold. "Sam! Please see reason!"

"I am seeing reason!" Sam yelled back, stomping down the stairs of the apartment complex. "Danny left us for dead and he could care less for both of us! It was proven that day! I was stupid to ever even _think_ he cared about us! Ever since the accident, ever since _I _convinced him to sneak into his parents lab, he's been different. _He changed. _I think _you're _the one who _isn't _seeing reason!" With that said, she clicked her heels together and let the board slip under her feet, allowing her to float into the lightening sky with Tucker's calls deaf on her ears.

* * *

When Danny managed to float back to his bedroom, tired and weary, he couldn't relieve the image of that ghost hunter from his mind. The way she held herself up was different and she was fearless while facing him. Despite the fact that half of her face was covered, Danny felt as if he recognized her from somewhere. His first thought had been Sam but he quickly brushed it away.

Everything reminded him of Sam nowadays.

His second thought was that Gothic girl that always visited his shows, even if he was five state lines away from her hometown. But he brushed that thought away too since she had been smaller, a bit chubbier, than this girl. This girl had the body of an athlete, thin but muscular, and she had a flatness in her tone that reminded him so heavily of Sam... but it couldn't be Sam. It just couldn't.

Her hair, it had been raven and he could have sworn he saw a streak of red in it when the moonlight hit it in a certain way. He could remember from his dreams that Sam had a streak of red in her hair, too. But it just couldn't be Sam.

His thought-structure continued like this for a while, even as he laid down in his bed and stared at the ceiling habitually.

They also all ended with the same sentence: it couldn't be Sam.

The sun peeked out from behind the mountainsides and filtered through his partially opened curtains as per usual. The light hit his forehead before slowly expanding and hitting his ominously glowing green eyes. The light hardly bothered him as he continued to stare at the slanted wall of the tent.

It was only thing that made him realize that perhaps that girl really had been Sam.

It was her fingernails, strangely enough.

The purple varnish had been chipped, her nails evenly sanded down and short.

But it had been purple, a particular shade of purple that most girls could not get their hands on for the life in them, considering Sam herself had specifically created that shade of purple once a upon a time ago. She had paid a lot of money for that shade.

And Danny had seen it on that woman's hands.

That was what made him shoot up from his bed, wide eyed and wearing a half-crazed grin.

"Sam?" he had choked, his hands slowly rising to grip his head. In one swift motion, he pulled his long bangs down and he let himself flop back onto the bed, groaning into his pillow. "Aw, damn it all to hell!"

There was a knock on his door.

"Master Danny, it is time for your daily training—"

"Not. Now." Danny grit, suffocating himself with his own pillow as Lydia peered into his room, furrowing her brows at her master's submissive position. It was unusual for her master to be so temperamental in the morning, usually he would resist for a while before giving in and waking up. But today it seemed as if her master had woken up with an even more violent mood than usual.

Lydia wondered what could have made her master react so viciously.

"But Master Danny.."

"Didn't you hear me?!" He snapped, throwing the pillow away and sending her a dark look. "I said, not now!"

Lydia flinched and Danny softened his glare, sitting up and stifling a sigh. _Well, that went well, _he thought dryly. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have yelled at you... I'm just in a really, really bad mood right now. Sorry. Really, I am." Danny pushed his legs over the edge of the mattress and stood, cracking his arms and shoulders. He hardly got a wink of sleep but he was sure that even if he canceled his morning's training, he was not going to sleep anyways.

It would be a while before he could sleep. And in his ghost form, sleep never came at all.

He quickly changed back into his human form and felt even more tired. He felt as if he were about to collapse from exhaustion. Upon second thought, he transformed back into his alter ego and felt his energy levels increase wildly.

He would be in this form for a while longer, it seemed.

"You look tired." Lydia voiced her quiet observation.

Danny offered a wary grin, making the female ghost gasp and look away in silent bashfulness.

"Yeah, you could say I didn't get enough sleep. Actually, you could say that I didn't sleep at all." He passed by her, oblivious to the spots of ghostly pink her cheeks turned to. "I could really use a cup of coffee right now..."

"I could make you one, if you would like," she offered, scurrying to keep up with his hurried pace.

"Really?" he smiled, widely. "That'd be great! Thanks!" He gave her a pat on the shoulder before steering right and heading towards the exit, where he would then walk to the grounds he reserved for training and start jogging with the rest of his crew.

Lydia stood very still in the middle of the hall.

She slowly rose her hand to her chest, pressing a palm against her breast in thought. She was sure that if she had a heart, if it could beat with the life that sustained all mortals, it would be beating very fast right now and very hard. Though her cheeks flushed with the ghost of a blush, Lydia was sure of one thing as she stared into the darkness where her master had walked into.

She had fallen in love with Danny Phantom.

* * *

_**A/N: Oh, noz. I am so evil. I shall tell you all that Lydia is a canon character from Danny Phantom. I believe she was Freak Shows subordinate-slash-mind slave or something. Any who! I didn't really bother to research her much so I am fuzzy if I even got her name right... I'm pretty positive I did, though. I know I haven't updated as frequently as I promised and it was partially from the Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood frenzy I let myself fall in.**_

_**Yes, I have fallen victim to another anime addiction. And no, I will not go to rehab lol. Let me drown in my Ed/Winry passion, damn it! Why does no one understand!? DD:**_

_**The next chapter is twenty percent done as of now! I've been feeling particularly moody lately, so that means I write for long hours before pausing and continuing. I think it has something to do with Spring, but that's just me...**_

_**REVIEW!!**_

_Scarlett._


	9. Chapter 9

_**Cirque Berserk**_

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_**9  
**__**Chipped Nail Polish**_

When Sam arrived the next day, she was not happy, this much was apparent to the African American girl as she eyed her friend with suspicion. Star continued to babble on about nothing, gesturing wildly to the Cirque Gothica poster hung up on the college wall when she caught sight of it.

"Oh, and he does look familiar, doesn't he?" Star rambled on, tapping her chin with her finger in thought. "I mean, I swear I've seen him somewhere before! Oh, my God! I saw someone famous before! Whoopee!!" She twirled around and beamed brightly at Valerie, who was still eying Sam suspiciously, and Sam, who was brooding and glaring holes at the poster.

"Whatever." Sam mumbled, adjusting her bag strap and blowing a strand of hair from her eyes. "Guys, we're gonna' be late for class if we don't hurry up."

"Oh, yeah! Come on, girls, come on!" Star chirped, pushing both girls through the college entrance, oblivious to the tension between them. "Gee, I wonder if I'll pass that chemistry exam I have today... uh oh, I think I was suppose to study for it!" she blinked owlishly at her own words. "Aw, man!"

Meanwhile, Valerie tried to casually initiate conversation...

"So, how are you today?"

"Since when do you care?"

"Sam, I always care about your well-being."

"It'd do you well to show it more often, then."

...only to be shot down harshly everytime she tried. Val eventually opted to observe her gloomy friend, noticing how she seemed torn between righteous anger and debilitating depression. She seemed less prepped up as usual as well – her hair tied up in a hasty pony tail and her shirt was askew. The laces of her boots missed a hole more than once and Val vaguely noticed the smudges of eyeliner that dotted Sam's fingers. These were minute details, however, for the most noticeable thing that stood out from the goth girl was her nail polish.

Her chipped nail polish.

To other people, they may have not even noticed she was evenwearing nail polish at all. However, to Valerie, this was bad. She had never seen Sam as messy as today – Sam was the most punctual, successful, clean, and down right, academical-wise, best person she had ever had the pleasure of meeting. It just wasn't normal for her to have one completely chipped out nail and another fully coated one. Sam always made sure to delicately reapply her special purple nail polish everytime her nails looked less-than-stellar.

"Sam, you alright? Seriously, don't smart me," Val added warningly, when she caught sight of the sneering curl of Sam's lips.

Eventually, the goth girl sighed, turning tired eyes to her friend. "I saw Danny last night."

Valerie froze but quickly recomposed herself. "O-Oh, really? Well, that's great, isn't it? You've liked him for a really long time now, right?"

Sam's expression darkened considerably, making Valerie believe that perhaps she should have watched her words. "Yeah, I did."

"Did?" Val asked hesitantly. "Don't you mean 'do'?"

"No," Sam said, far too casual as Valerie worriedly watched her friends eyes glitter dangerously. She pushed forward but Valerie persisted and did not let her get past. Sam rose an annoyed brow but strode forward nonetheless, bumping shoulders with Val as she caught up with Star. "I meant 'did'."

* * *

Danny squinted, his tongue sticking out of the side of his mouth as he stared at the colorful can of soda in front of him.

He could do this... he could do it—

"I smell something burning and it's not not your tent," came a voice from behind, breaking his concentration totally. Danny flicked mildly-annoyed eyes to his best friend, Tucker Foley, who only grinned innocently as he pulled out a chair and sat down himself.

"What'dya want, Tuck?" Danny grumbled, staring at the can once more, trying vainly to regain his focus.

"Oh, nothing," Tucker started flippantly. "Can't a guy come visit his best friend whenever he wants to?"

"Not if that guy happens to be one Tucker Foley," Danny shot back, averting his gaze from the can and to his friend, sighing. He was definitely not going to get anything done today, not with Tucker around.

"No luck with the telepathy thing?" Tucker asked sympathetically.

"Its not telepathy!" Danny scowled, crossing his arms. "How many times do I have to tell you before you get it!?"

Tucker shrugged. "Looks like telepathy to me."

"Well, it's not."

"Then enlighten me, oh ghostly one."

"Haha, very funny." Danny reached out and grabbed the soda can, popping it open and taking a large gulp of it. "It's a pretty useless power," he admitted, crunching the can in his palm and setting it neatly in front of him. "All I can do is see through objects."

"Useless!?" Tucker gaped dramatically, appalled by his friends lack of interest in the supernatural phenomena. "Do you know how many _shirts _I would be able to see through if I had your power!?" He nearly drooled as he thought of all the wonderful women—Valerie. He meant Valerie. Tucker subtly looked around him for any telltale sign of the vicious woman before turning his attention back at Danny.

Danny snorted. "You wouldn't be able to see anything," He slumped back on his chair. "It's all... blurry and solid. It's like placing a sheet of paper in front of a candle – all you see is a sharp outline of whatever is behind it. Like I said before, pretty useless power."

"... So you've tried it before, hmm?"

"What?! NO!" Danny blurted, eyes wide with panic. Tucker only grinned lecherously.

"Well, well, well," Tucker snickered slyly. "So you _do _possess hormones, huh?"

"Tucker, I'm a twenty year old guy," Danny scowled irritably. "Of course I have hormones." He went back to the topic and sighed. "Anyways, all I was able to see was a thick goo inside the can. I noticed all liquids look like thick blocks of playdoe," he popped open another soda.

"Huh, weird," Tucker conceded. "So, does that mean you can, like, see through walls and stuff?"

"Yeah, but for example if you were standing on the other side of that wall," he pointed to the tent wall across from him. "I'd only be able to see your outline. I don't know if I'm merely in my first stages or if this is really all I could do."

"Stop putting yourself down," Tucker grinned optimistically. "Just think, if you can train this new power of yours enough then you'd be able to see all the boobies you want, dude!!" Tucker seemed bent on this subject.

Danny sighed at his best friends mentality and smiled wryly. "But I'm not even sure if I _can_. I spent two years trying to improve my ecto-blast but it hasn't really changed aside from it's size. I think some powers just can't be changed..."

"What makes you think you won't be able to improve, though?" Tucker queried curiously.

"I don't know," Danny rubbed the back of his neck. "Instinct, I guess. I just get the feeling that's all it will do for right now..."

"Ahem, 'right now'," Tucker air-quoted with a raised brow.

Danny smiled. "Yeah, right now."

"... Doesn't matter, you're _still _a lucky bastard!"

Danny groaned. "Come on, Tuck, drop it! I can't see underneath a girls shirt!"

"Liar! You can see _outlines,_" Tucker seethed.

"Well—so—alright, what about it!?"

"So you _can _see something!"

"No, I can't!" He countered heatedly.

"Aha! There you go again, lying to your best friend, huh?!" Tucker pointed an accusing finger at Danny, who looked more than exasperated at his friends theatrics. "Do you feel no shame!?"

"Tucker! For the last time, _I can't see under a woman's shirt with my x-ray powers_!!" Danny yelled, only to freeze when he heard the sharp clinking of glasses.

Lydia stood at the door holding two glasses of water and looking very displeased with the conversation. Tucker blinked and nearly jumped away when the female ghost slammed a glass of water in front of him. She smiled tightly at Danny, who was pink with embarrassment, and bowed to both of them before she left the room, not sparing a glance at the African American.

Tucker whistled lowly. "Vicious one, isn't she?" But as he thought about the female ghost more, something roused inside of him. For some reason, he felt as if he knew her from somewhere, he just couldn't think of where...

Danny caught the suspicion written all over his friends face. "She used to work for Freakshow. You know, that ghost with the weird, floating, tattoos?"

"Oh, so she was the one who tried to ink you all those years ago," Tucker cracked up, grinning widely. "Get it? Inked you—"

"Yeah, no," Danny deadpanned, rolling his eyes as Tucker only laughed harder.

Suddenly, he stopped, and reached into his front pocket to pull out his cellphone. He was quick to flip it open and speak into it, even quicker to end the conversation and stuff it back where it belonged after just a few rushed words and sounds of agreement. Tucker looked at Danny and said, bluntly, "You're coming with me to have lunch."

"Tuck, it's six in the evening, I doubt that can be considered lunch," he said dryly, earning a peeved look.

"Whatever, you're having dinner with me then."

"Aw, Tuck, that's sweet, but I don't really swing that way." Danny laughed when his friend's irritation only skyrocketed, taking a sip from the can before crushing that one as well and placing it beside the last one. He was reaching for the refreshment Lydia had brought in when a sharp, almost shadowy, object sprung up from the cracks along the tent. Danny narrowed his eyes when it was gone just as fast.

His hand still poised to grab the glass, he slowly brought it down and continued to ponder on what he just saw. Danny no longer believed in the phrase 'trick of the light', not when so many ghostly phenomena tended to gravitate towards him for some strange reason.

_That's strange, _he thought, ignoring Tucker as he ranted on the wrongness of his retort and how he was fully straight. _What was that? _He gazed intently at the crack, his keen eyes catching something black sliding almost disgustingly alongside the cracks; worming its way lower and lower until it reached the floor, where it mysteriously disappeared altogether. He was about to stand up and check the phenomena out when Tucker grabbed his wrist and tugged him out of his chair, half-dragging him out the door with his free hand pointing ahead in faux-triumph.

"Come on, Dan! We're gonna' be late and Valerie'll have my head if we don't make it on time!" Tucker urged, raising a brow when Danny merely stayed silent and continued to gaze at the crack on the adjacent wall. "What're you looking at, buddy?" Tucker stopped his pulling to sidle up next to Danny, squinting at the wall Danny seemed to be perusing with much interest.

"Nothing..." His reply was delayed by ten seconds, Tucker counted. Now he definitely knew something was wrong. "Nothing. Come on, Tuck, before Val decides you aren't worthy enough to live."

Tucker gave the wall one last look but nodded. "Hurry, man!" He shouted, when his eyes scanned the watch on his wrist, "We're really late now! Ugh, great! This all your fault, you know? If you'd only been honest about the shirt-looking thing we'd have long since left!"

"My fault?" Danny scoffed. "I'm not a pervert! I'm not going to agree with you on this!"

Tucker huffed. "I never said you were perverted, just said you should appreciate the female anatomy."

"Female anatomy, huh?" Danny shook his head, smiling wryly. He would never win this conversation, would he? "Lydia!" Danny called, voice never going higher than how he usually spoke. Tucker was eerily aware how it'd all gotten silent, almost deafening, and was even more creeped out when Lydia emerged from the shadows and looked expectantly at Danny. "Take care of everyone while I'm away, alright? I'll be back somewhere around nine – don't let anyone slack off while I'm away, okay?"

"Yes, master," she smiled, plainly ignoring Tuckers presence. "Is there anything else you require?"

"Uh, no," Danny responded, elbowing Tucker in the ribs as he struggled to withhold his laughter. "And, for the millionth time, call me Danny!"

"Yes... master Danny."

This seemed to be the final straw for Tucker, he burst out laughing. Lydia looked at him and coldly stared until he his laughter slowly subsided to nervous chuckles. The woman continued her icy gaze, eventually averting her eyes and nodding stiffly at Danny, who was rubbing the back of his neck in embarrassed amusement.

As she glided out of the room, Tucker pipped: "I can't fathom why you would befriend someone who tried to kill you when you were 14."

"She's alright once she warms up to you," was Danny's cheerful reply. "Besides, she makes a great manager!"

"Uh huh," Tucker said suspiciously, blinking when Lydia merely faded from sight. "Anyways, lets go before Valerie really _does _decide I'm not worthy of living."

* * *

"Guys, I really, really don't want to go," Sam complained, digging her heel into the pavement when Star grabbed her wrist and pulled. The blond was thrown back by Sam's resistance, not understanding why she would refuse the invitation. Usually Sam was in for anything they were up to.

"Why not?" Star frowned. "We're just going out to dinner! It's nothing big – just a little get-together with Val and Tucker and his friend."

"His friend?" Sam asked suspiciously, not liking the thoughts – or rather _thought –_ that ran through her head. Tucker didn't really hang out with anyone except she and Val and Star and, before the incident, Danny. Sam didn't want to think that, since Danny was back in town apparently, he had begun to spend time with him and had now invited him along to dinner.

She didn't think she would be able to take seeing him face-to-face without either making a fool of herself, spit out insults, or begin to cry.

Perhaps not the crying one, though. Sam was known for her nerves of steel and she wasn't about to let one supernatural guy ruin that streak she worked so hard to maintain.

"Sam, stop being difficult," Valerie snapped, sending her a sharp look. "We're going and that's final."

"Yes, mother," she muttered back.

Valerie ignored the jab as they reached her car.

"I'll take my own car," Sam arranged, waltzing towards her own vehicle easily while Star bounced to the passenger door on Val's car. "Where are we going to again?"

Valerie smiled, almost wistfully. "The Nasty Burger."

Sam froze for a moment, felt the cold hand of nostalgia grip her heart. The restaurant no longer offered Sam a nice place to simply relieve the stress of school and let her relax – now, it held bittersweet memories, memories which never ceased to tear her apart when she was idiotic enough to let herself get wrapped up in them. Sure, she had gone to the fast food restaurant before, but with Danny back in town, most of her thoughts strayed to the green eyed, white haired, ghost boy more often than not, with it bringing back unpleasant memories as well as pleasant ones.

As she drove out of the colleges parking lot, frowning deeply as they made it to the Nasty Burger in no time at all, Sam wondered if she could somehow make up an excuse in order to get herself out of going. But she figured, as Valerie and Star got out of the car, that if she even tried, Valerie would never let her live down this little moment of weakness.

The two girls had a habit of picking on each others faults.

"Come on, Sam!" came Star's voice, "Hurry up before we leave you behind!"

"Oh, I wouldn't mind," Sam muttered under her breath, getting out of the car. "Coming!" She said in a louder voice, shooting Val a glare when the woman only smiled cockily and sashayed into the fast food restaurant. Sam stared at the doors of the Nasty Burger and forced herself in, wrinkling her nose at the sickening smell of meat that wafted into her nostrils.

"Disgusting," Sam frowned, and walked over to the table Valerie and Star had sat down in. "Do we really have to eat here?"

"Yeah, it brings back good memories!" Star beamed, then let her face fall slightly. "Only...Val and I sat over there," she pointed to the middle of the room, to the place which was currently occupied by a couple. "and you, Tucker, and Danny sat over there!" She pointed to the corner, which was empty save for the drink someone had left behind.

Sam didn't say anything, merely nodded as Val stood up and announced she'd order for everyone. "Bring me something vegan!" Sam reminded, earning a half-hearted wave in return. She drummed her fingers nervously on the table but stopped once she noticed the nervous tick.

Star had taken out her compact mirror and was applying mascara swiftly.

Sam glanced at the clock overhead the entrance as Valerie walked back holding a receipt and some change, which she stuck into her front pocket before she sat down.

"Nervous?"

"No, why would I be nervous?" Sam shot back as Valerie quirked her lips upward. Her eyes rested on the fingers that were once again drumming a silent beat against the table.

Sam stopped and glowered.

Valerie sighed through her nose and rested her chin upon twined hands. "Sam, it's alright. Calm down, I doubt Tucker will even bring him along. He told me that he was hanging out with some college friend of his and he'd bring him along for all of us to meet." Valerie dropped her voice so Star wouldn't catch on, as the girl hummed a tuned and continued to apply her make up obliviously. "He's not coming – I'm sure of it."

Despite the relief that washed through Sam's body, she couldn't brush off the terrible notion that Tucker had lied and he was actually bringing Danny.

It was one of those gut-instinct moments she had too often.

However, when the door of the Nasty Burger opened again, Sam was thoroughly relieved to see Tucker alone. Every time for the last twenty minutes, whenever the door opened, Sam nearly gave herself a whiplash from turning to it. She was just glad Danny wasn't with him.

That emotion was short lived, though, when a man dressed in all black sauntered into the restaurant right after Tucker. He was tall and lean, hair black and eyes a chilling oceanic blue, wearing a partially opened trench coat matched with an equally dark tank top and some purposely torn jeans. On his feet were combat boots, which made Sam green with envy when she noticed that he owned the exact boots she had been dying to order for the past few days.

What made it worse was she recognized him after a few moments of horrified, dazed, staring.

It was Danny.

And he looked just as horrified.

* * *

**A/N: _Sorry the late update, I try to update monthly at least but it seems that I can't hold that promise. Well, it wasn't my fault, anyways; not really. Perhaps it was my fault for leaving my laptop AC adapter out and the cat happened to find it and chew the living out of it... so my computer was uncharged and therefore unusable._**

_**I nearly made my cat homeless when I found out XD**_

_**I'll probably update again soon since I want to make up for lost time. This fiction is reaching the end, believe it or not, because I don't really have much planned for it except emotional encounters, those strange shadow ghosts, and some more dry humor.**_

_**Please review!!**_

_Scarlett._


	10. Chapter 10

_**Cirque Berserk**_

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_**.  
**__**10  
**__**(RE)call**_

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_The wind was blowing all around him. He felt like he was floating, a sensation which briefly made him smile until he opened his eyes and saw the sky was quickly becoming distant and that things all around him were just a blur of colors which blended with the dark that engulfed him._

_He was falling, he realized, but did not have the heart - or time – to actually scream with the terror he felt zinging through his veins._

_He could feel it, mere milliseconds had passed, but he could feel himself slowly start to grow too close to the ground – too close to splatting wide like the pancakes he loved so much._

_A white hand suddenly lashed into his sight and he choked a scream as his shirt scrunched up above him and nearly crushed his windpipe. His feet scraped the ground before he was up once again and then his back crashed to the rocky floor._

"_Owww," he groaned, sitting up and shaking his head. He rubbed the aches that arose in his back and glared at his best friend, who was looking paler than he usually did. "Took you long enough, Danny!" Tucker scowled, adjusting his glasses. "Sam, tell Danny it took him long enough!" He crossed his arms over his chest and furrowed his brows when Danny scrambled weakly to his feet before diving head-first into the freezing lake water._

"_Danny?" Tucker frowned, standing up and wincing when his lower back protested. "Danny! Sam?" He looked around and froze._

_Sam had fallen first, he remembered that much, and she had fallen into..._

_The lake._

"_SAM!!" Tucker bolted to the shore of the lake, dragging his feet against the thick soil as the water froze the blood in his legs. "DANNY! DANNY! SAM!" He watched the water with poorly concealed fear and paled when Danny shot out of the surface, Sam's limp head bobbing with the water currents._

_Tucker helped Danny drag Sam out of the water and rest her upon the shore, peering down at her pale skin and even paler lips._

_He watched Danny pat her cheek and ground his teeth when he looked just about ready to cry._

_He never did._

"_Wake up, wake up, wake up," he kept mumbling, touching her throat and feeling a weak heartbeat and shakily hovering it over her before repeating the actions – as if doing it enough would change the outcome._

"_What did Lancer teach us?!" Tucker asked, panicked. "Er—Mouth to mouth, right? Oh, crap, how do you—Sam was the only one who was paying attention!!" Tucker gripped his beret but paused when he noticed he no longer had it over his head. His eyes found it floating in the lake water but he was too panicked to actually go and get it._

_Sam wasn't really breathing._

_Danny kept pressing his palms into her chest, mumbling to himself, eyes greener than he had ever seen them, and Tucker watched with wide, terrorized, eyes when Sam never reacted. He saw Danny lean down and blow air into Sam's mouth, continuing to press on her chest and watch his friend merely whimper when she did nothing._

"_Wake up, wake up, wake up," he whispered, eyes wide with growing fright as Sam only got paler. "Please, wake up!" He gave a hard press, putting most of his body weight into the plunge, and Tucker watched with frozen shock as Sam suddenly jerked up, gasping desperately for air, clawing her hands into the sand, and gurgling out mouthfuls of water._

_Danny tilted her head to the side, running a violently shaking hand down the side of her cheek as she breathed in greedy gasps of air._

"_Sh-she's alive," Tucker mumbled, dropping to his knees as the shock wore off. "She's alive. Danny, she's okay now! You did it! You did it, DD, you saved her! I knew she wasn't the only one paying attention in Lancer's class!" He scooted closer to Danny, who blankly stared at Sam as her breath evened and she fluttered her eyes closed. "Danny?"_

"_I have to go," he whispered, swallowing thickly at Tucker's silent stare. "I have to go. Now. They're expecting me back and I—"_

"_You.. you mean you're leaving us?" Tucker asked, voice plunging into a whisper. "Just like that? I-I thought—"_

"_I have to go," Danny said, voice stronger than before. Tucker saw the dead determination in Danny's eyes, the struggle it took for the boy to stand on his feet as he stared down at Sam's body, which was alive thanks to him. "You don't understand. They need me there. After I took hold of that staff... I noticed something strange. All of the ghosts that had been under its control have obeyed without hesitation but once the control broke... they were lost. They don't remember anything. They have nothing but the circus Freakshow ran. For Gods sake, they can barely _talk_!"_

_Tucker saw Danny suddenly jerk back, eyes blinking as if he had gotten sand into them. When he looked back up, a strange emotion filled his emerald eyes, before Tucker saw the old spark which was Danny filled them once more._

"_They lost everything?" Tucker asked, brows drawn in. "_Everything_?"_

"_Everything," Danny nodded, sounding dazed. "I doubt they even know the concept of death – they think they were always like that." He looked down at his hand, twitching his fingers and feeling something like dread and fierce indignation clash._

_He felt conflicted._

_He was a ghost. He was dead. But something inside screamed otherwise, thrashed to be released but he simply didn't know how to release that anxious entity._

_What was happening to him?_

"_How would you know?"_

_Danny pointed weakly to the right and Tucker saw the staff which had once had Danny in its clutches lie upon a rough patch of rocks, broken in half._

"_Because I... don't know who you are," Danny swallowed. "I-I don't know who she is but she... she means a lot to me. I feel it. I know she does but I don't know who she is."_

"_You don't know... me?" Tucker choked, voice strained with disbelief. "You honestly don't know me?"_

_Danny shook his head slowly, worrying his bottom lip as he continued to stare at Sam. "No. I don't."_

"_I'm Tucker. Tucker Foley! I'm your best friend, man, I've been your best friend since elementary school!" Tucker screamed, standing up and clenching his jaw against the tremors that threatened to expose his spiraling emotions. "She's Sam! Samantha Manson but she hates it when people use her full name and—"_

"—_She's an ultra-recyclo-vegetarian and she hates the color pink and she absolutely loathes it when people judge her by her appearance and she thinks her parents nag her too much about her preference of dark colors—"_

_There was a jab of disgust in his gut and Danny clutched it. It felt like something was trying to tell him something._

_What was _happening_ to him?_

"—_And you've been in love with her for the last five years!" Tucker finished. Danny looked up at him, a haunted, scared, look in his eyes._

"_I-I..." Danny's lips trembled. "Don't tell her," he whispered, body shaking not from the cold but from the sheer overload of emotions he felt. He felt possessive over this girl – he felt a connection with her, a deep one that had him nearly giving into the buckle of his knees and crushing her in his arms. He couldn't explain it. He felt protective, almost animalistically so, over this girl he could not remember yet at the same time did. "Don't tell her about this. It'll tear her apart."_

_Tucker shut his eyes, gripping his head as he felt a headache pound his thoughts into scraps and pieces that refused to fit together. "It'll tear her apart even _more _if I don't!"_

"_I don't remember you but if we really were best friends... please," Danny pleaded, turning fully to him and looking at him straight in the eye. _

_Tucker liked to believe this was all a lie; that Danny would suddenly smile and say 'surprise!' and everything would be just dandy once again and they would be able to continue on with their lives._

_But the uncertainty in his eyes, the sheer distant glint in them, told him otherwise as Tucker flashed his eyes to Sam, who coughed out more water and weakly brought a hand up to wipe away the sickly warm water. Her eyes crossed when she opened them and he saw her simply slip into sleep once more._

"_Okay," Tucker laughed harshly. "Okay."_

"_There has to be a way I can regain my memories," Danny rushed, feeling the _need _to reassure. "How can I know all of this without having at least _some _form of remembrance? How could I know that she likes—likes to fly at night when I visit her in her room?" Danny ground his teeth, fingers digging into his skull. "How can I _know _that but at the same time _not_?"_

"_I have no idea what's going on," Tucker confessed, shaking his head. "But... this staff—Freakshow putting you under his control, getting manipulated by that staff thing... it screwed you up, man," his voice cracked. "Are you sure you don't remember? Nothing at all?"_

"_I feel as if.. I haven't seen you in my life," Danny said, something inside of him just _breaking _at the sight of Tucker's pained face. "But I know you. I know I do! But..." he suddenly looked up, into the inky black sky. "I have to go. I'm sorry. I'll try to regain my memories—I'll fix this but just..." he hesitantly glanced back down at Sam, who breathed easily. "Don't tell her. Whatever you do, don't tell... Sam."_

_Tucker merely watched Danny take a step back, force himself to bend his legs in order to lift off. Before he did so, Tucker whispered:_

"_You're a halfa."_

"_A.. a what?" Danny asked. His jaw hurt from having it clenched so tightly for so long._

"_You were in an accident a couple of years ago. Sam convinced you to go into your parents Ghost Portal and-and you pressed something inside of it and when you came back out, you were like this," Tucker explained, motioning to him. "A ghost. But you could transform back into a human at will. Maybe that's why you remember."_

_Danny dropped his gaze to his hand, tracing its outline against the black of the ground with his eyes. "I don't know. I feel like I've been like this for all of my life."_

"_But you haven't. You haven't died yet, Danny _Fenton_, you're still alive somewhere inside there." Tucker watched Danny flinch away, hold his head, and grind his teeth against a sharp jab inside his skull._

"_I—have to go," Danny strangled, disappearing from sight before Tucker could blink. A gust of air made Tucker shiver, had him straining to stay still and not reach through the air like an idiot in a desperate attempt to drag back his best friend._

_He dropped to his knees, where he stayed like that for two more hours until Sam awoke, groggy and grouchy and unaware of the developments that had happened just a few hours prior; unaware that, despite the grief that had drowned her violet eyes when Tucker told her Danny had left, everything had been for a cause and the hate she harbored for Danny was nothing more than smoke and mirrors as the boy didn't even remember her. _

_

* * *

_

"... and _I _said, 'no! You can't do that because its unjust! I thought you were a lawyer!'" Star cracked up, slamming her fist upon the table in the Nasty Burger. Valerie smiled thinly, eyes flickering back and forth from Star to Sam as the former joked none-too-funnily about recent events.

Tucker tapped his fingers nervously against the table top, watching Danny simply stare at Sam while the girl desperately ignored him and sipped her strawberry shake more frequently than was considered casual.

"Star, that wasn't even funny," Sam deadpanned, ignoring the look of indignant astonishment that fleeted Star's face.

"How would you know!?"

"Because I'm not laughing and I don't see anyone else, either," she snapped, effectively shutting up Star albeit she felt a little hurt by the sheer bluntness of it all. Star sipped her diet coke and watched Danny, whom she had greeted enthusiastically, slowly drop his gaze to the table.

From where she was sitting, she could see him clench his hands into fists.

"So!" Tucker cleared his throat, offering a wary grin. "How was everybody's day? Huh? Come on, someone's gotta' be having a crap—except Sam, you don't count—" he ignored Sam's curt 'hey!' and continued. "—so? Anybody? Fine. I'll just share my day. It started with toast—"

"Next," Valerie interrupted blandly, smirking when Tucker shot her a sharp look.

"But I haven't even started!" he protested.

"Doesn't matter," Val sighed, "I can already tell it was going to be boring. Just like that one time you tried to narrate your whole day."

Tucker flushed pink. "You promised you would never tell anyone about that!!"

"Too late now," she grinned rakishly, laughing when Tuck groaned and Danny cracked the first smile during the entire hour. In her peripheral vision, she could see Sam lock her jaw and grind against the straw stuck between her teeth. She saw her flick her eyes to Danny twice before settling upon the sweating cup of soda Danny had ordered seconds after his arrival.

He hadn't ordered anything to eat.

Tucker had stuffed himself so full of meat, it made Val cringe.

And Sam had ordered a simple strawberry smoothie when Valerie returned with a tray of stuff akin to lettuce and carrots.

Star ordered diet coke and extra-small french fries.

Valerie had gotten a simple drink, just like Danny.

As Sam continued to drink her smoothie, she couldn't help but to think bitterly how utterly uncomfortable this so-called 'reunion' was. She tried her best to glare daggers into Tucker's skull, to which he ignored and she cursed his immunity, but after a few failed tries at that she direct her ire to Star, who started to ignore her as well.

Next victim: Valerie.

And with just one challenging stare, Sam backed off. She sunk deeper into her seat, trying her best to ignore the way Danny kept looking at her. Any other time she would have blushed and felt mildly flattered – perhaps she would even caught his eye – but in this moment, in that time, Sam felt nothing more but uncomfortable under his scrutiny.

It wasn't lusty.

It wasn't interested.

It was confused.

There was a strange look in his eyes that made her fidget with the hem of her shirt. Her leg bounced up and down nervously and Sam had to watch herself as she kept referring to the time every few seconds if she let her guard down for even one second. She could feel her face heat, sweat start to bead on her forehead, and her heart race when he leaned back into his seat and crossed his arms over his chest.

All the while, Danny kept staring.

He had not once moved his sight from her. Despite the tingling feeling she still felt, the uncomfortable atmosphere simply didn't mesh well with the emotions she wanted to feel. She needed to get out. She needed him to stop staring. She needed him to STOP whatever he was doing to make her feel this way.

"Stop looking at me," she said, voice coming out sharper and fiercer than the pitiful voice in her mind.

Danny never so much as blinked.

"I'm not looking at you," he responded, voice cool and collected.

"Yes, you are," she grit. "What else can you be looking at? My cup?"

"What if I was?"

"I would have noticed the way your eyes slanted towards the cup," she replied with conviction. "Stop staring at me."

He smiled coldly, making her stomach knot. "I thought you were all about the Amendments and the constitution?"

"That has nothing to do with this," she forced through her clenched teeth.

"I think it does," he continued, voice almost taunting. Suddenly, his eyes turned a clash of blue and green, a color not like Danny; a deeper color than before. A color which reflected the maniac and malicious sparkle she had never once seen in him. The sparkle she had seen in other rogue ghosts. "It's America – I can do whatever the hell I want, right? Or have you given up on that ideal just like everything else?"

Her heart pounded so hard, so fast, and she stared with wide, wide eyes at Danny's sly and grinning ones. Suddenly, it stopped. The mixture of colors became one solid color – a bright baby blue – and she watched him jump, as if startled, before he stood and stumbled away from the table.

"Excuse me," he murmured, face pale, lips vaguely trembling. They all watched him walk clean into the door and shove it open. They all watched a boy with his friends scowl at Danny when he roughly pushed past them as he exited.

It was silent for a few seconds.

"Well... that was unexpected," Tucker laughed nervously.

Sam abruptly stood, gazing at the door Danny left, before grabbing her bag and mumbling a shallow, "I have to go," and exiting the restaurant as well.

Star looked between Val and Tucker and popped her lips. "Um, I'm going to refill my soda." She slid out of the table, walking away from them as fast as she could.

Valerie finally dug her nails deeply into the table, eyes narrowed. "You _moron_," she hissed, "how could you bring _him _in here knowing that Sam still feels hurt from his desertion! Ugh, you're so lucky she didn't blow up and punch the kid in the face! What the _hell _were you thinking?!"

"I was thinking that maybe I could bring them back together," Tucker hissed right back. "They need to talk to each other one way or another, Val, or else how do you expect them to make amends?!"

"Oh, I don't know," Valerie growled, sarcasm dripping off her words, "maybe once Sam felt comfortable _saying his name_, for one?"

"And when do you think that'll be!?" Tucker said, exasperated. "It's been five years, Val, _five_. She's gotta' snap out of it someday! Why not today?"

"Did you hear what he said to her?" Valerie snapped. "He literally _mocked _her! Sam! Queen of mocking! Do you really think that Danny would say that to her if he wanted to become her friend again?" She pinched the bridge of her nose. "You just made things so much worse for Sam and I."

"But—that—I can explain that!" Tucker protested feebly. He pushed his glasses up, eyes conflicted as Valerie waited impatiently for an answer. "It's just—" _he's not himself, _he wanted to say, _because he told me that his ghost side acts up sometimes. _But how could he say that when Danny had specifically told him not to tell anyone? Danny had told him this during their ride to the restaurant, to warn him ahead that he might say some callous things against his will; that sometimes he couldn't control himself, sometimes things got 'complicated', whatever that meant.

"Right," Val said flatly, after a few moments of watching her boyfriend gape like a fish. "You can't. So just admit that you're wrong and let's move on with our lives." She sighed, as Star flirted with some high schooler who looked much too young to even be thinking about hitting on her. "I wonder how Sam is holding up right now..."

"Fine," Tucker whispered, hoarsely. "Just fine. It's Sam! She's the strongest girl I know.. er, aside from you, babe." Tucker turned and peered through the window, watching as Danny rubbed his eyes out vigorously while leaning against the hood of his car. He saw Sam's car had long since been pulled out and dropped his gaze when he found that perhaps this _had_ been a bad idea. But the reunion had worked for something, at least: perhaps now Danny would explain to Sam the reason why he had left, the reasons behind the stretching grin and heartless words he had said today.

"Hey, I'll be right back, alright?" Tucker forced a smile, walking out of the restaurant and to the car where Danny leaned against.

"He hates her," Danny whispered once Tucker was close enough.

"What?"

"He hates her," Danny shut his eyes. "He hates her. My ghost counterpart hates Sam."

Tucker was rooted to the spot, completely floored by the information. "But you... you remember, right?" Tucker asked, voice dry. "You remember us, right? You got your memories back... right?"

"I regained my memories a few days later," Danny revealed, dropping his hand from their position over his eyes. They were blue. "I appreciate you acting like nothing pretending nothing happened but... ever since Freakshow controlled me with the staff, I haven't been the same." He clenched his hands. "My ghost self and my human self fight for dominance most of the time, even though I can subdue my ghost half most of the time. It seems the staffs power over my ghost self awakened my 'alter ego'," he air-quoted, "and now it's pretty much pissed off half the time since I'm in control nearly every second of my life. But sometimes my control breaks and-and stuff like _this_ happens." Danny lowered his eyes, tone laden with guilt. "I want to apologize to Sam but my other half strongly dislikes her for some reason. He hasn't accepted her yet and he refuses to let me go meet her again."

"Does.. your other half hate me, too?" Tucker asked, hesitantly.

"No, he thinks your annoying," Danny chuckled, as Tuck scowled. He sobered up quickly. "But now I have the issue with Sam. I never thought my other half would put a barrier between us like this – it usually behaves and follows my demands. I don't know what makes this different than any other time."

"So, your other half – it's your ghost half, right?" At Danny's nod, Tucker continued. "And that was why you couldn't remember anything about your past, right? Because you were ghost that time so I assume..."

"I got the hang of switching from human to ghost a couple of hours later." Danny explained. "I kept messing up in the beginning, though, and sometimes I'd end up with white hair and my regular clothes or black hair and green eyes. Once I got that down, things only got worse." Danny sighed heavily. "I began liking trickery and I found speaking with regular people annoying. It took me a year to notice that I'd changed ." He pointed to his mouth. "I don't remember getting a lip piercing. I don't remember buying all these clothes," he gestured to his shirt, "or planning half of the events in Circus Gothica. I don't even remember my first show. I sometimes don't remember my shows. It scared me at first but I eventually accepted that sometimes, if I wasn't careful, my other half would take over for a while before I woke up or something jolted me back to reality."

Tucker listened quietly, absorbing the information with apprehension. It seemed to him like Danny had been through a lot during his absence.

"Why doesn't he like Sam? Or you, or whatever?" Tucker asked, once Danny had decided that leaning against his car was a bad idea as it could activate the alarm and stood by it instead. "You like Sam, right?"

"Yeah," he replied, "I like Sam a lot." His shoulders slumped, frowning as he crossed his arms protectively across his chest. "And I noticed that if I like something, my ghost self usually doesn't."

Immediately, Tucker caught on.

"So if you really like Sam...?"

Danny grinned lopsidedly, eyes flickering a blur of colors before settling on the startling blue-green that made Tuck sick. "Danny wasn't kidding; you're pretty smart, four eyes," Danny's grin broadened, as he flipped his hair out of his eyes and he combed it back with his fingers conceitedly. "You caught on quicker than I anticipated. But yes, Danny-boy here loves Sam." His grin held a tinted edge to it, something dark and mischievous that made Tuck resist taking a step back. "So in return I can't _stand_ her."

It all fell into place in Tucker's head, as he watched this new Danny lean back upon the hood of the car casually; shark-grin almost too disturbing to stare at for too long.

_This is going to be harder than I thought, _Tucker swallowed. _How am I going to reconcile Sam and Danny when Danny's ghost half hates her guts?_

Yes. Things had become much more complicated than once thought.


	11. Chapter 11

**Cirque Berserk**

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_**11  
Splitting Halves**_

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She sprinted up to her apartment. The tears she struggled to keep in her eyes had fallen out during the drive. They kept streaming down, unstoppable, no matter how much she screamed at herself to stop because it was stupid and she didn't need to waste her tears on scum like him.

But these reasons only made her cry harder.

The person she had reunited with in that fast food facility was _not _Danny. It had felt like Danny for a few moments, it felt like they had transcended time and returned to the age where everything was okay and uncomplicated, but it changed into something darker, more horrible, as time ticked on. She felt his gaze, not like Danny's gaze, pierce the walls she had cemented meticulously around her and take a gander at what she hid. His words had a cutting mechanism to them; a jagged, sharp, edge which hacked through her defenses as if she had been bare to begin with.

Throwing the constitution and her rights and amendments had nothing to do with this. It had been the cold remark of giving up.

_Do I give up on everything?_

No. She tried her hardest on everything; she would be damned before she gave up.

_Is that how he really saw me? A person who never finished what she started?_

That sounded a little more right; a little more toward the correct path. Had this been how Danny viewed her for better part of her life? She might've come off as a little lazy and perhaps cunning, given how she found ways out of work and loopholes just as easily as she laced up her boots, but had this front she put up been taken too far? Had she inadvertently made him...dislike her, for her tough demeanor?

She slid a pillow over her face and shut her eyes tightly against another wave of tears. She sucked them up, braving the twisting hurt in her chest.

She always knew it would hurt if she ever saw Danny again; mostly because of the doubts, the loss, the grievance in knowing he left without even telling her or anyone else. She had seen how broken up the Fenton family had become after his leave, how his sister had left for college and didn't return for months, not even if she had vacation or break. Mr and Mrs Fenton spent rare time outside of their laboratory; rarely even ate together at the same table and smiling seemed like a hassle to both of them whenever Tucker or her came over to see their progress.

But she never knew it would hurt this much; it would implant more doubts, more losses, more grievances to her already aggrieved heart.

If she thought it hurt before, this was overkill.

Because it hurt.

It hurt _a lot._

The sadness transformed into rage, as her eyes caught the calender pinned up on her wall. There was a circle around the thirty first, marked by Valerie, who waltzes into her room like she owns the place half the time, and Sam sneers at the date, knowing fairly well what happened on that date.

It was the last day Circus Gothica would be in town.

The last day Danny would be in town; the last day she'd have to see his snotty face for a long, long time...

It would be the end of everything or the start of something new if they both let it; if she let it.

She rolled on her side and glared at the wall, cuddling up with her spider pillow as the day slowly passed.

Thank god she wasn't going to see that dumb circus show anyway...

* * *

Danny opened his door and touched his forehead, sharp pains making him slower than usual. He closed it behind him, muffling the laughter and chatter from the ghosts that lingered in the hall. He had been drawn into a conversation previously but had managed to get out of it when his head started hurting again.

He didn't need to know that _he _was acting up again.

There came a particularly hard stab in his skull.

Danny clawed his hands against the wall inside his room. He stood shakily, digging his fingers into the flimsy black material of the tent which housed him and dozens of other ghosts. He nearly tore right through it, nearly gave away his predicament, and he kneeled down in order to keep the tent wall in place; least he bring the entire wall down and attract the attention of the other ghosts.

He didn't want them to see him like this.

Only one person had seen him like this and that had been Lydia and she had been more scared than anything when she witnessed the character change. Most of the other ghosts thought it was his act, his stage-character, when in reality that personality was just as much as his as it was _his_.

_Stop it, _he strained against the suffocating force that made it hard to breath; to blink; to move._ I'm going to see her soon_. _I have to see her. I have to tell her—_

_**No you don't, **_The voice bit back, a growl in the words. **_You don't have to go. I won't let you go so you might as well just calm the fuck down, Danny._**

_I DO_, Danny replied, just as fierce, and felt a shift in positions. He felt it, the push, and he continued to push as he slowly regained his sense. _I have to go see her. I WILL go see her. _His teeth ground down on each other, his will slowly growing stronger as he fought to regain his body. When he was in this state, a stasis of sorts, it was hard to know what was going on around him. It was dangerous, as both entities were stuck in a paralysis; a stillness where neither was in charge of the body and both were battling it out until one thawed and the other took the opportunity.

_**Fuck her! She doesn't matter! **_The other half felt the swift change in positions as well. Danny had played this game too much to fall for his coaxing. **_It's not like you can't find another one just like her! _**

_That's not the point! Why don't you like her? _Danny shot back, grunting in the effort to stand. He leaned heavily against the tent wall, sinking into it and hoping no one on the other side noticed anything strange. _What's so bad about her? Why can't you just accept her like you've accepted everything else in my life?_

Having this other half, to which it called itself respectively 'Dan', was more of a bother than a true problem. Danny often had to encourage him to accept the little things in his life, like his interests in dogs or his dislike of pistachio ice-cream, in order to make Dan just a little more alike to him. Their interests varied greatly and their personalities were vastly different, however, so it was mostly in vain.

While Danny adored his parents, Dan thought they were suffocating idiots who should go out and get real jobs and leave the ghost hunting to the true professionals.

While Danny would give his life for his best friend, Tucker, Dan often commented that best friends came and went and it wouldn't really matter, anyways, since best friends were the most likely to back stab you.

While Danny was positive he loved Sam, Dan rudely stated she was a Gothic psycho who needed to get some meat in her diet least she die of being a skinny—he didn't even want to get into that conversation.

Danny had managed to convince Dan into accepting his parents (thought he had yet to reunite with them..) and Tucker. Dan merely thought of the African American boy as a nuisance and perhaps a good decoy should any of their plans go awry, for now. Whatever these 'plans' were, Danny did not want any part of them. He was just relieved Dan had accepted him.

_**Because! **_Dan roared, making Danny visibly flinch. **_She's going to break you! Don't you understand? Love isn't anything more than a couple of chemical imbalances! It'll _fade_!_**

_So what? _Danny roared back, eyes flashing a deep blue. _So what if it'll fade? So what if she breaks me? Because of you I've already broken her, don't you think it'll even it out if I just gave into her?_

Dan was quiet, giving Danny enough time to suck in a shaky breath and slowly ebb the anger. Emotional situations were usually dangerous to Danny; if he got too emotional, felt too happy, felt too sad or angry, Dan had an opening and nine out of ten times he would take that opening.

"Danny, we have a show scheduled for seven tonight—" The words died on Lydia's throat, as she witnessed yet another battle for dominance within Danny Fenton. It wouldn't be the first time she'd seen him desperately trying to regain some of his sense. The first time it had happened, she had been so scared for both herself and him. When he was stuck between sanity and insanity, there was no telling what he'd do. Sometimes, he would spit awful words at her while other times he'd weakly tell her to leave him alone for a little while.

Danny slowly regained his head, as he leaned off the wall and stumbled to his bed. He shakily sat down, holding his skull in his palm. It felt as if it'd been stuffed up with cotton; a usual side-effect, along with fatigue and irritability, that came from their usual inner squabbles.

"Lydia?" Danny called, softly. He opened one blue eye, sheepishness seeping into his tone: "Could you bring me a cup of water? Please?"

"Of course," Lydia said, after regaining her vocals. "Would you like some pain killers as well?"

"Nah," he shook his head, wincing when it made his head hurt even more. "Uh, about the show? When does it start?"

"Seven."

Danny groaned. "So soon?"

"Well, you still have one hour," Lydia informed, glancing at the clock sitting on his desk. "Its only six. You still have enough time to get dressed but if you are feeling this ill then I could always cancel the show—"

"No," Danny sighed. "The show has to go on. I'll do it. I just thought I had more time, that's all."

"I shall return soon with your beverage." Lydia stepped out, one last concerned glance over her shoulder before disappearing completely.

Danny rubbed his temples, grumbling inwardly and hoping Dan would hear ever nasty word he could think of.

_**Haha, is that all you got Dan-Dan? I've had **girls **call me worse things! **_

_Shut up and be good, _Danny snapped, heading to his wardrobe and shuffling through the array of black clothing. He pulled out his usual attire with practiced ease, his head still a little heavy on his shoulders. He changed his boots into a heavier pair that reached his knees. He changed his shirt for a clean tank top but kept his black jeans, throwing a dragging trench coat over him. He slipped on his torn-up finger-less gloves and quickly outlined his eyes, poking himself at least three times before finally finishing.

Danny ran his fingers through his hair, making some strands stick out messily but achieving his signature look. His nails were fine, he decided, even if some were chipped. But wasn't this a show of freaks? A little chipped nail polish shouldn't matter. He slipped on his rings, clipped on some earrings and snapped on his spiked dog collar.

Once he was finished he glanced in the mirror. He didn't like the way he looked. To be honest, he always considered this to be more Sam's thing – the black make up, the black assemble of clothing, the utterly _black_ heavy boots – but ever since he adopted the circus it became apparent to him that dressing normally – with plain t-shirts, jeans, and sneakers – wasn't very accepted when running a circus specially made to house the socially suicidal.

It had been the only reason he had changed his clothing style so drastically, using Sam's typical attire as a reference. He had contemplated getting a Mohawk but that seemed to take it too far and he was honestly too lazy to maintain such a hairstyle. He figured his stark white hair would make up for the lack-of-cool-hairstyle so many other circus freaks had.

Danny walked over to his bedside and picked up his staff, a black staff with a iron handle in the shape of a ghostly skull. It was a plain staff, nothing very flashy or expensive, but it worked for what he needed it, which was for some performances that involved jumping off from very high statures and fire.

"Danny, I see you are ready," Lydia's voice distracted him. He turned and started when he noticed just how close she was. He really hated when she did that.

"Space," he muttered, feeling her cold shoulder brush his own. "I need space!"

"I am sorry!" She looked down, face drawn in shame, and he felt bad for being so blunt. He forgot just how sensitive she was about these things. She hadn't really been the same ever since Freak show's brainwashing.

"Er, no, it's alright. I didn't mean it in a bad way, I mean—just don't do that, okay? One day you'll give me a heart attack and then I'll _really _be dead." He laughed nervously, not liking the way Dan laughed inside his skull, adding his own comments that involved gruesome ways to die. He honestly took the jabs at his mortality too literally.

"Your drink," she pushed the plate forward and he took the glass, draining it in a few gulps. He placed it back and thanked her with a smile, which caused her to look away. He frowned but shrugged it off, thinking maybe she was looking at something on the floor when in reality she was composing herself after being submitted to his bright smile.

"It is almost time. I have conducted the last-minute preparations and all seems to be fine. I would suggest you begin to prepare backstage, though. We're starting a few minutes ahead of schedule due to a large influx of guests in the tents."

"A few minutes _how_ early?"

"Ten minutes."

"Ten? That's not so bad," he mumbled, nodding. "Okay. Let's go."

"Wait!" Lydia said, as Danny reached the door.

"What?"

"Your hat." It hung upon the corner of his vanity, raggedy and huge, looking very misplaced in a room that looked fairly normal. She dusted it off and took care of some minor dents with a sweep of her hand. She stepped forward and floated a few feet up to place it on his head properly, tilting it to obstruct part of his face as per usual.

Danny grinned wryly. "Oh, hey, thanks, Ly! I totally forgot about this old thing!"

"You are welcomed," she coughed, stepping back as Danny tuned to leave, his coat dragging in his wake. She stared at his back for a few moments more before going intangible and flying to the main stage by sticking close to the ceiling, where she needed to discuss a few minor changes with the lights to the staff working them.

Danny checked the most important equipment quickly, waving at some ghosts and human staff, and made sure everything was in place before the show began. He checked his cellphone, seeing it was ten minutes before showtime. His stomach squirmed a little but it was nothing he wasn't used to; it had been worse in the beginning, when he was so awkward in such dark clothing. He didn't fit the goth scene at all! If it hadn't been for Dan's sudden possession he'd have screwed up any chances in making Circus Gothica a hit.

"Is everyone ready?" Danny called, weaving through backstage. The velvet curtain concealing them fluttered faintly with the draft coming from the open doors on either side of the tents. "Hello? Everyone?"

"Yeah, we're good to go!" A fellow ghost called back, followed by a wave of agreement from the rest, who were fixing their costumes or rehearsing their parts quickly.

"Great!" Danny smiled, walking to the edge of the curtain and peeking out. It was a full-house, something common nowadays, and he was pleased to see it wasn't just goth and scene kids but families and regular folk.

_This is kind of bad because I'll probably scare the living out of them but its okay! _Danny told himself with a sigh. _Maybe I won't scar them too badly... _He sort of knew this wasn't true.

"We're on in five people!" A second-in-control ghost called, floating overhead them with a clipboard. "FIVE! DO YOU ALL HEAR ME?"

"A little _too_ clear, you damn—"

"Count! Language!"

"Yeah, yeah..."

Danny smiled at the grumbling ghost, who lifting his ax to rest on his shoulders as his voluptuous partner fixed the black bows on her dress. She caught Danny's eye and waved politely, giving him a thumbs up to show she was ready for another show.

A sudden, stifling, ache came from his head and he paused his own waving. Danny rubbed his forehead, the pain increasing in volume. _Not now. _He tried to ignore the ache as he glanced at his phone, at the date, and frowned. There was only five more days until October thirty first, the day he was expected to give his best performance of all time. It was the final performance and he would have to extend the tent to accommodate the amount of guests that were estimated to come.

The ache became drawn out pulses of pain.

For a moment, the cellular screen stretched and distorted. He blinked, trying to get rid of the fuzziness of his vision. But somehow it only made it worse, as the colors glowing became a mixture. He looked up, holding his head, and saw everything was vague shapes and intermixing colors.

He leaned against the wall, watching the curtain prepare to be pulled back. He could feel panic start to well in the pit of his stomach. He wasn't ready. He pushed himself off the wall and was about to call the entire thing off – the pounding of his head becoming unbearable – when a sudden black was drawn over his eyes.

"Danny!" Lydia shouted, her eyes wide with fear when she saw him collapse. She made frantic motions to the men handling the curtains, who nodded and halted the motion mid-way. She could hear the crowd murmuring at the half-drawn curtain but she ignored this; Danny's health more pressing. She didn't even think about it as she leaped off the lift holding her meters in the air and flew toward Danny, who was still lying face-down on the ground.

Right before reaching him, he awoke, getting on his knee's and shaking his head. She approached him cautiously, not sure how this will turn out when his shoulder started to shake and his laughter became audible. His voice sounded a little deeper, a little different, and Lydia wondered if this was his other self. It would not be the first time...

"Danny?" she whispered, and he looked up. His eyes were a mixture of blue and green, glowing with a deviousness that made her stomach knot. It _was_ his other self and she felt slightly thrilled, though a little guilt for feeling so. This self gave her more attention than his other self. He stood upright in one fluid motion, clenching his hands and stretching his lips into a wide grin.

"What're you standing there like a moron for?" He grinned, flicking his eyes to the men atop the lift. He waved his hand. "Pull the curtain! Hurry! These people came for a show and a show we'll give them!"

"Danny, are you okay?" she asked, brows furrowed, and Danny tilted his head curiously.

"Of course I am," he responded, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. "And call me Dan, sweetheart, Danny sounds too...kiddish."

Lydia opened her mouth to say more when the lights flicked on and the music began. The entire entourage became tangible, eliciting a gasp from the crowd, and soon the stage was brimming with the strange, the wicked, the plain freaky, and Dan laughed with maniacal mirth at all their shocked faces. A few regulars cheered and hooted, causing an uproar of noise from everyone else.

The ghosts that dominated the edges of the stage were dressed in their infamous clothing – skimpy, tight, and leather – and some even prowled through the audience, scaring the wits of distracted guests. Personally, Dan liked that the best; the faces these mortals made always made his dead heart pound with life.

"Come on, the show is about to start!" He grabbed her wrist and pulled her onto the stage, onto the center light, extending his hand outward and grabbing the mic that fell from the ceiling, where one of the backstage staff was happily watching the show begin.

"Hello Amity Park!" Dan roared into the mic, walking around a bit as his crew began to get into position. "Welcome to the show of freaks! The one true circus that accepts both the wicked and the strange! I assure you this show will be nothing less than spectacular! Nothing less than thrilling as well as disgusting! It's where all your nightmares will come true and a place where your deepest desires come alive! No person is rejected in this family because how _can _you when you're about to witness the performance of the socially unaccepted? " he murmured the last bit, checking over his shoulder to see some of the ghosts scowl at him. They always did get annoyed when he poked fun at them. This only encouraged Dan to do it more often.

"Circus Gothic promises the show of a lifetime. So, broaden your views, open your mind, because what you are about to see will leave you questioning everything..."

There was a low, menacing, growl from behind Danny, who merely smirked and ran forward, stepping onto the rail that divided the stage from the seats. He leaned forward, sweeping his eyes across the crowd that waited with baited breath for him to continue. "And now, my friends, I have only one question to ask you," he held one finger up, as the growling grew louder and deeper. All of a sudden, the lights were turned to their full extent, causing many to flinch away, and the crowd gasped with both terror and fascination as the shadows which were once ink in the background stretched and pulled and became a shark-toothed grin with sinister red eyes. The growling became nearly deafening, as Danny laughed into the mic and gave a great leap back, returning to the center of the stage.

"So, Amity!" He chuckled darkly into the mic, the shifting shadows behind him consuming the entire stadium until not even the powerful beams of light above them could remove the pressing darkness. His eyes glittered with black mirth, lips upturned in a smirk, as he asked the final question before the stage would explode in an array of colors that would follow the marching troops of the true undead: "How should I scare you tonight?"

* * *

**A/N: _This chapter was a little hard to dish out, mostly because how I write this story is I get inspired and I don't stop until that inspiration fades, which is usually after I write a chapter or two. I usually work on other stories and leave this one alone until ideas flood me again. That's likely why it's updated monthly, which I try to maintain or else it'd be updated every 2 months or something._**

_**I've got a general idea for the next chapter, but don't expect any miracles like my updating soon. When I say "I'll update soon!" it usually translates to "I'll procrastinate, update ubber late, and make up some half-assed excuse" XD**_

_**REVIEW!**_

_Scarlett._


	12. Chapter 12

_**Cirque Berserk**_

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_**12  
Shadow Thieves**_

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"Okay! Okay! Since we have to tickets, and the admit 3 I bought before the circus arrived..." Star stuck her tongue out in thought. "Seven people can come with us, including you, me, Tucker and Sammy-wammy!"

"Don't let her hear you say that," Valerie absently said, flipping a page in her magazine. "Okay, so who are the other three you're inviting?"

"Oh, some of my college friends!" Star giggled airily. "I want you guys to met them! They're really cool and one of them has this cool afro—its, like, _huge _and this one time I lost my pencil in it—"

"Star," Valerie snapped a finger, trying to snap her out of the rant. "We have one day til Halloween and we haven't told Sam yet! I'm pretty sure she's free tomorrow but..." She hadn't seen Sam in the last few days. Sometimes, she thought she saw her during school hours but nowadays she couldn't be so sure. Most of the time, Sam left before them and every time they tried visiting her, she would either not be there or perhaps pretend not to be there.

Valerie didn't need to be a genius to know it was because of the Danny incident. She was really still seething because of the cheap trick Tucker pulled on the two.

Honestly, that boy was as impatient as her grandmother!

"I have so told her!" Start argued, looking miffed.

Valerie blinked. "What?"

"I called her yesterday," she replied with a bright smile. "I asked her if she had something planned and she said no so I, like, told her if she'd like to come with us to the most awesome show ever and she said yeah, but, like, she'd totally kill us if it was another fashion show which it _isn't!_" Star giggled, before adding seriously: "Everyone knows it isn't fashion season!"

"Er, right," Valerie coughed, a little creeped by the sudden serious atmosphere. "Anyway, Sam said yes?"

"Yep!" Star grinned. "She said yes! Take-Sam-to-Circus-to-make-up-for-teenage-angst is a go!"

Valerie pasted up a smile and dropped her gaze, a little queasy. She really hoped Sam wouldn't bail on them the instant she saw where they were taking her. It would be just like her to adamantly refuse attending the circus that would only be in town for a one last day.

_Maybe it isn't such a good idea, _she thought, troubled. _Danny was really mean to her when they first met, I can't imagine just how'd mean _she'd _be if she caught onto where we were taking her... _Valerie hoped Sam would at least sit still for one hour – then maybe their ticket wouldn't go to waste, right?

"Oooh! Look! Gossip Girl is on!"

Valerie groaned and slumped her face into her magazine, ignoring Star's squeal as she saw her favourite actor on screen.

* * *

Danny sighed, sitting on the doorsteps of his home. He had just gotten out of there, after being smothered with kisses and hugs and cheerful grins for the last seven hours. His sister, Jazz, hadn't been there but his family had no qualms on activating the webcam and having them met like so. It had been a little emotional, as Jazz had burst out into tears and he'd felt his eyes sting a little.

He hadn't seen his sister in so long, he wondered what compelled him to break free from his family for as long as he did.

_That was probably my lack-of-memories, _Danny thought sullenly. _And Dan._

_**You rang?**_

_Shut up, _Danny thought with no real threat, leaning back on his hands to gaze up at the dark orange sunset. Tomorrow would be his last day in Amity Park, if he allowed it; if he didn't manage to get to Sam in time. All these days were spent in a struggle for control, Dan had managed to suppress him enough to avoid getting to close to Sam. He really wanted to speak to her, face-to-face, and tell her everything that happened and to try and convince her he wasn't who she'd made him out to be but...

_You're always butting in, _Danny thought darkly.

_**Trust me, kid, you'll thank me when you're older. **_

Danny didn't respond to the lofty comment. He merely stood up and dusted himself off, the evening chill offering a small comfort to him. When he was human, all of the sensations of the living made him appreciate life more than the usual person. When he was in ghost form, he felt nothing – nothing except the empty beating his heart.

The door behind him creaked open and he felt a splash of warmth engulf him for an instant. It made him realize just how cold it actually was.

"Danny, sweetheart, are you alright?" his mother asked, concerned.

Danny turned and smiled. "I'm fine, mom. I'm just a little tired."

"Oh," Maddie frowned, leaning against the door frame for a moment. "Well, come inside soon, okay? Don't stay out too late! We're having your favorite for dinner!" she beamed.

"Radioactive steak?" Danny asked dryly.

"Yes! Only without the radioactivity!" She laughed, going back inside. It was much too cold outside, she would have shooed him inside if it weren't for that awfully heavy-looking coat her son had thrown over his shoulders. "Hurry up, okay?"

"Will do!" The door shut and Danny sighed. His family seemed happier with him around. He had kept in touch with brief emails or phone calls but meeting them personally with them was a first in five years. He was just relieved Dan hadn't decided to make a guest appearance and completely ruin this first meeting with the family he hadn't seen in years.

_**Yeah, that's the only break I'm giving you, alright? Don't get too comfy with me.**_

_Whatever, thanks anyway._

He'd gotten the shortened version on what he had missed out over the years during the course of the day he dedicated only for his parents – he even missed out on rehearsal for it. After all, they deserved it. Their inventions had, apparently, gotten wackier and more incredulous, it seemed, which relieved Danny as this meant his family, however sullen without him, was still going on strong.

His ears caught the sound of feet crunching on the stray leaves and twigs on the sidewalk and he gazed at the sidewalk, waiting for someone to suddenly appear from down the way. To his utter shock, the first thing he saw was a streak of red, followed by vivid violet eyes and flushed cheeks.

His heart thudded in his chest, as Sam jogged down the sidewalk with an MP3 player held tightly in her sweaty palms. The words caught in his throat, as he watched her slowly grow distant, but his movements didn't slow at all.

He could hear Dan's vicious growl but it seemed blocked due to the hammering in his chest.

"SAM!" He finally said, all his emotions spilling into that single name. She staggered to a stop and popped out her earphones, looking around her before looking over her shoulder, her eyes widening when she saw who it was. To his dim surprise, she plucked her earphones back on and continued her jog – faster than before as he scrambled down the steps and tried to catch up with her.

"Sam, wait up!"

She only jogged faster, until she was running down the block with Danny hot on her heels. It was times like these that he thanked his athleticism.

"Sam!" Danny managed to grab her wrist, felt a shock course through him, and very nearly got decked in the stomach when she swiveled around; eyes alive with rage. He dodged, grabbing her other hand, and yanked them down so they wouldn't inflict pain on his person. He was human and her punches would _hurt _unlike when he was in ghost form. "Please, listen to me, it's not what you think, alright?" Danny rushed, words sounding jumbled to her. "I have to tell you something important—"

"Leave me alone!" Sam hissed. "Just—go! Please, just leave me alone!" Sam shut her eyes, trying to pull away from the boy she felt such a connection to. "Danny, please, just go! Don't talk to me, I really can't—"

"No, listen to me, before anything else," Danny rushed, blue eyes panicked. He could feel the push, the control slipping. "That time at the Nasty Burger—I don't know what I said but I didn't mean it alright? It wasn't me!"

"You don't know what you said?" Sam growled, eyes sparking like flint. "What the hell are you talking about?"

"It—the staff, it messed with my psychological stand point or something," Danny explained, the best he could, as he felt his control slip like sand through his fingers. He was winning. Danny couldn't stop the bucket full of emotions that were whirling inside of him. "Sometimes I change per—whoa, there, almost let something important slip."

Sam froze. His gaze had gotten colder, meaner, and he no longer wore that aura of friendliness. Instead, someone else stood in the place of Danny. He wasn't like she remembered him to be – the harsh look in his eyes enough to ward her away – but what had he been trying to tell her? Sometimes he—what? Sam swallowed, a bead of sweat trickling down the side of her face, as Dan's cold hands gripped her own to a bruising level.

She tried not to flinch.

"Danny, you sometimes what?" Sam decided to ask, as his eyes flashed with that strange mix of green-blue. He looked a little amused, a little disgusted by the sight of her and it made her feel self-conscious. What was with that look? "Danny...?"

"Nothing," he replied, grinning sarcastically as he gave her wrists one last squeeze. "Nothing at all." He let her go, stepped back, and jammed his hands into his pockets. "Nothing at all, you damn drama queen." She watched, with a slack jaw, Danny just strut away from her, humming a tune she had never heard before and leaving her completely floored with his switch.

What had that been all about? It was the same deep voice, the same serpentine eyes, the same shark smile that made her feel uncomfortable to the point of turning away. It wasn't Danny, she was positive of this, but then who was it? What was it? What had the real Danny been trying to tell her?

It was almost as if someone else had taken over him...

_What's going on?_

There was only one person who had the faintest of ideas as to what was happening to Danny:

Tucker.

* * *

Tucker prided himself to be a very organized and down-to-earth kind of guy with a unique sense of humor that some wonderful girl, who happened to be Valerie, would see and appreciate. But at the moment, he was not organized – it was quite the opposite, judging by the splash of papers and pencils all over his desk – and he was not down-to-earth because his mind was anywhere but at the task at hand, as he tiredly wrote down the answer to a calculus problem.

And this wonderful girl was ignoring him and starving him of attention, which made him cranky, moody, and overall, had him in a black mood.

He had put off his homework and now it had piled up into a mound too tall to really work with in one night. He vowed never to let this happen again, even if there was a little voice inside his head that snorted and told him he'd only end up doing this exact same thing again the next week and making the same vow all over again.

That was why when a harsh banging came from his door, he was more than tempted to just leave that person outside as he furiously worked on his calculus homework. He didn't have time to dawdle – he really had to get working or else he'd fail the semester and failing was simply not an option for him currently.

He needed to pass.

Least his mother get on his case once more for his lack-of-interest in his school work. And, trust him, his mother was just as scary as Valerie when she lost her temper. Tucker shuddered, not wanting to relive bad memories.

The tip of his pencil broke when he heard his front door slam open, bouncing off the wall loudly. He had half a mind to panic when he remembered only a few people, few people he _knew_, could tear a door open like nothing at all. Rapid footsteps warned him that ignoring the door was probably not the best thing to do as his bedroom door slammed open to reveal a scowling Sam.

He hoped _that_ door was still functional by the end of the day.

"I think I broke your front door," was the first thing she said and he sighed.

"I know," Tucker pushed his glasses up his nose. "I'll fix that later. So, whats up?"

"Why the hell didn't you answer me?" Sam scowled, then glanced at the slew of papers on his desk and rolled her eyes. "Nevermind. You're stressing. Anyways, something...weird just happened." Sam sat down on his bed as Tucker yawned, setting his pencil down as he knew no more work would get done after this.

What happened now? Her favourite vampire show brought up a new fact of the undead?

"Weird how?"

"Weird as in... Danny weird," she cleared her throat, ignoring the spark of interest in the African Americans eyes. He sat up straighter.

"You saw Danny? And didn't totally beat him black and blue?" Tucker crossed his arms, the corner of his lips curling up in a grin. "I have to hear this."

"Well...he was trying to tell me something," Sam began, uncomfortable. "Something about, um, that day, right?"

Tucker shrugged, a little apprehensive to enter this topic. "I don't know, shouldn't you know? You're the one telling me."

"Well...the weirdest thing happened," Sam mumbled. "He...I don't know. He wasn't Danny anymore. His voice got all...weird and he ,well... he got weird, alright?"

"Weird. Got it." Seeing Sam's glare, Tucker sighed and added: "Okay, I get what you're trying to tell me."

"Right, so...why?" Sam sat up straighter to listen. "I know you know why, Tuck, you've gotta' know!"

Tucker swallowed, on the spot. Her eyes seemed to look right through the lie on the tip of his tongue, as he scrambled for an excuse or a way to get out of this mess. He desperately wished her Ghost Sensor would go off right now but knew it was too much to ask for. He had to tell her or...do something.

Tucker sighed deeply, contemplating his options.

If he told her, he'd basically betray Danny since he promised him he wouldn't tell her, but then if he did it would all resolve all their issues quicker and they could all get on with their merry lives like planned.

If he didn't, he'd risk his friendship with the girl as they promised they'd keep no secrets between each other. At least, nothing life-threatening which, in these circumstances, it was, since Tucker wasn't sure just how bloodthirsty Dan was for Sam.

He supposed there was no choice at all, as Tucker rose his eyes to met hers again.

"Danny's weirdness... remember when he was being controlled by Freakshow five years ago?" Tucker said, slowly. Sam nodded, remembering that chilling day all too well. "Well, it messed with him," _I better let him tell her this, _Tucker mentally added, "and, have you noticed how his eyes sometimes get this funky color? Like, green-blue or something close to it?"

"Kind of," Sam trailed off with uncertainty.

Tucker continued. "He's got a split personality, to be blunt. The staff thing messed with his ghost self, so now, apparently, it tries to gain control over his mortal self, which is obviously stronger considering his circumstances," Tucker explained, as Sam's eyes widened with realization. "That was why, that time during the Nasty Burger, you got dissed."

"I-I wasn't dissed!" Sam sputtered.

Tucker shrugged, feeling a little daring. "Whatever floats your boat—OW!" He groaned and rubbed his shoulder, as Sam sat back down and cracked her knuckles again for emphasis.

"Thanks for the bruise," Tucker muttered, before continuing. "Anyway, his ghost self basically has some sort of grudge against you."

"Me?" Sam blinked. "What did I ever do to it?"

Tucker shrugged. "Ask Danny, he hasn't told me." Though he knew very well the reason why, he decided to let Danny sort this out with her. After all, he'd have to confess his feelings for her in order to explain his ghost self's feelings. It'd all work out, Tucker concluded, as Sam gazed thoughtfully at her hands.

That was the reason she felt so terribly awkward around Danny that time. It had been because she knew, somehow, that it wasn't Danny – that the person sitting across wasn't the boy she knew five years ago and wouldn't ever be. He was too mean, looked too tough, and had this mischievous glimmer in his eyes that made the hairs on the back of her neck stand on end. It wasn't a very nice glimmer.

"Thanks, Tuck," Sam murmured, standing up, still in thought. "I owe you one!" She turned around without sparing him a glance, still in thought, and Tucker merely yawned, feeling sluggish and lazy to continue his homework.

"See ya tomorrow Sam!"

"Tomorrow?" Sam asked, puzzled. She looked over her shoulder for an answer.

"Halloween? Special ultra secret show with Star and Val?" Tucker prompted.

Sam nodded. "I remember now...hey, do you happen to know where they're going to take me?"

Tucker stared for a moment. "Nope. Not at all. No-ho. No sir-e."

Sam smirked. "Sworn to secrecy?"

"Val would have me by the neck if I ever told you," Tucker chuckled. "You'll like it though," _now that you're a little over your hatred for Danny-boy, _he added mentally, as Sam smiled.

"See ya, Tuck! Good luck on your homework."

"Yeah, I'll need it..."

He winced when he heard Sam slam the front door three times. It must've stuck on the hinge on the third time because he didn't hear another slam. He'd really need to get that fixed today or else he'd get robbed tonight..

Tucker glanced down at his half-finished homework.

He glanced at his door and then back to the sheets on his desk.

"I'll finish them later," he promised, standing up to go see the damage.

Somehow, someway, Tucker knew this decision would come back and bite him in the butt.

* * *

She guessed that, after that talk with Tucker, she shouldn't have dwelled on his words for as long as she had. She should have looked where she was going, as she walked down the sidewalk under the blanket of the dark with only the dotted sky and glazed crescent moon to guide her. It was mostly empty, that was probably why she lowered her guard even though Valerie stressed to never let your guard down during her Ghost Hunter lessons – especially when it was dark and alone.

Because you were never alone.

Ghosts also thrived in the cold darkness of the night; it was when they were the strongest.

Sam didn't notice the shadow on the floor, which twitched as she grew closer. It lifted itself up slightly, the thin film of black pressing as it slowly rose from the floor. If she'd been paying attention, she would have noticed the maniacal giggle that came from deep within the dank ally she was walking by.

Her foot caught in the shadow and Sam barely had time to squeak in surprise until she was crashing to the ground, scraping the heel of her hands on the abrasive concrete in her effort to avoid major damage. Her eyes barely caught the swivel of the shadows, which moved unnaturally around her, before she felt a spear of fear shoot through her.

It had gotten too cold.

The dark was too black.

The usual town noises were next to nothing compared to the pounding of her heart.

Sam shakily glanced over her shoulder, laying corpse still on the floor, just in time to see the salivating, sharp-fanged, smile of the shadow ghost that stretched upon the brick wall behind her. Its hands were close by its body, the light touching it enough for her to see its sharp claws, which were dripping with something she didn't want to think about. The shadow consumed her, wrapped around her until she was trembling from the sheer fright, and dragged her slowly into the ally; paralyzing her with the unnatural terror she felt zinging through her veins.

She knew she should have looked where she was going, as black flooded her vision and only her scream could be heard all around her.

* * *

**A/N: **_Oh. Cliff hanger. How about that? I updated early, compared to my recent updates anyway. Its a bit short but I'm going to try to make the next chapter longer. By the way, I posted up three new drabble DP stories so check them out if you have time! :D I thank you all for the reviews! I hope to reach at least 200 reviews by the time I end this, so please keep up your encouraging comments! Man, June 8 is just my day, huh?_

_Scarlett._


	13. Chapter 13

_**Cirque Berserk  
by. **Poisoned Scarlet_

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**13  
_Shadow Lair_**

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Sam groaned, her head pounding. There was an annoying dripping sound coming from somewhere around her and a chilling breeze that had her shivering in her clothes. She slowly propped herself up on her elbows, groaning loudly when her body ached something nasty. She fluttered her eyes open, not sure what to expect, and once they adjusted to the blatant darkness, she looked up and surveyed her surroundings.

It looked like a room of sorts. It was very dark so she could barely see in front of her. The dripping sound came from somewhere behind her, which she noticed also stretched into infinite darkness. Every thing around her spread into darkness, actually, except herself...

She cautiously sat up and looked around critically, hearing nothing but that incessant dripping and perhaps a shuffle or two if she let her guard down for even one second.

"Hello?" she called, unsurely. "Is anyone in there?" She gasped when she saw something roll out of the darkness.

It was a ball.

A children's ball.

Sam hesitantly touched it. She flickered her eyes back up into the darkness and slowly rolled it back from where it came from.

The ball came bouncing back this time.

Sam threw it back.

It bounced back to her.

She frowned. "Who's there?" She kept the ball on her lap. "Could you please come out here? Hello?"

There was a fidgeting, snickering, sound coming from the point where she threw the ball. She was tempted to scoot back but somehow she knew that wouldn't help. She could feel her neck prickle, alerting her of danger, so she stood her ground and stared into the ink black ahead.

She blinked when a blob of black came rolling in. It curled into what seemed to be a circle and then two slits appeared, blinking and staring back at her with white, round, eyes.

It was almost...cute.

"Hey there," Sam began with a sense of trepidation. "So, uh, do you know where I am?"

It blinked back.

"...I'll take that as a no," she muttered. She glanced at the ball and picked it up, letting it roll to the small blob.

The shadow eyed the ball and then, with a curious gurgle, consumed the ball in black.

_Did it just eat it? _"That was...weird," Sam frowned, tentatively reaching out for the ball. The slits came back and rounded once more, gazing at her outstretched hand curiously. "Are you even...a ghost?" Her fingers gently brushed the shadow, feeling as if ice had frosted over them. She retracted her hand immediately, holding her frozen fingertips to her chest. "What are you?"

It blinked back and rolled the ball around, gurgling out something incoherent.

"I said, what are you?" Sam demanded, starting to get annoyed by its playfulness. She was cold, annoyed, and wanted nothing more than to be lying in her bed hugging her spider pillow. "What the heck are you?" She reached forward again and grabbed the ball, scrunching the shadow in her hand as she did so.

It cried out.

Suddenly, the infinite black that surrounded her boomed with a growl and Sam shakily her rose her eyes to stare into multiple eyes that were narrowed with anger. The red that lined its eye and the dark, crescent moon, pupil promised something she did not want to think about as Sam gulped.

"Uh oh."

* * *

Two whole days.

Danny was freaking out.

He had looked everywhere for her ever since Tucker had called him and asked if he had seen Sam around as the girl had mysteriously gone missing. The whole town had been scoured once, twice, three times and yet there was no trace of the goth girl anywhere.

It had been extremely difficult to dissuade the girls from trying to look for her with them. When they had discovered she had disappeared, all thought of going to the circus had fallen and they had immediately began their own search as well.

And so far, nothing had appeared – even _with _their combined efforts.

"What if she's hurt?" Danny asked, panicky, pacing around Tucker's room as the boy hummed in thought. "What if she needs my help? What if she's being tortured or something? What if she's _dying_ or-or—!" He couldn't continue; the sheer thought of Sam being hurt or near death was something that made him sick.

"I think I know where Sam is," Tucker interrupted his spazzing.

"WHERE?" Danny screamed, zipping up close to him and shaking his shoulders desperately.

"Whoa, man, lay off the shirt!" Tuck huffed, dusting his shoulder and causing Danny to briefly glare. "Anyway, you know those weird shadow creatures you two were blabbing about before?"

"Yeah, what about them?"

"What's so terrible about them?"

Danny opened his mouth to respond but nothing came to mind. "Actually...they all refuse to tell me. They always scream and run away whenever I ask," he shrugged.

"Exactly. That might be our best guess if we're ever going to figure out where Sam is," Tucker frowned. "I have a gut feeling it has something to do with those things..." Suddenly, an ear-splitting shriek cut though the air and Danny looked toward Tucker's unmade bed; to the device that was howling its butt off annoyingly.

"What," Danny began slowly, "is _that_?"

"That, my friend, is my Ghost Sensor 3.0," he said, proudly. "It alerts me whenever there is a ghost on the premises!"

Danny scowled. "Well, can you turn it off? It's getting annoying..."

"Er," Tucker cleared his throat. "I stuffed it with so much high-tech gear...that I forgot to add an off-button."

"So you're telling me that thing won't stop screeching until the ghosts disappears or something?"

"Basically, yeah."

Danny reached forward and, with a crunch of his fist, effectively ceased the irritating blare.

Tucker stared blankly. "Well, that's _one_ way of turning it off."

Danny tossed the crushed remains back on the bed, letting himself plop down on the edge to heave a sigh. "I really don't have time for ghost hunting...I gotta' go save Sam from – whatever."

"Until we can get another lead as to what those shadow things are, I'm afraid you have no choice, buddy." Tucker took off his glasses and wiped the foggy glass using the hem of his shirt.

Danny nodded, staring thoughtfully at the ground. Those mysterious shadow creatures were their only lead as of now and if they were ever going to figure out where Sam had run off to, they needed to first solve the mystery regarding those strange ghosts...

_I wonder what's so bad about them, _Danny wondered to himself, eyes still downcast. "Those shadow things...you have any idea what makes them so creepy?"

"Dunno'," Tucker shrugged. "They're shadows, right? Maybe they manifest themselves as your deepest nightmares or something?"

Danny inwardly gulped.

That would be challenging to face off against...

_Or maybe they cause bad luck, _Danny mused to himself, digging the tip of his foot into the carpet below. _Like Shad—_

It became obvious to him in that moment.

He vaguely heard Dan snicker in the deep recesses of his mind.

How could he have been so _stupid_?

"SHADOW!" Danny blurted, hopping to his feet. Tucker sent him a weird look. "You know, that giant black blob that hangs out with Johnny 13? Shadow?"

Tuck's eyes widened in realization. "Of course! He's a shadow himself, right?"

"What if he's...related to those things? Or if he is one of them!" Danny speculated. "I mean, all he does is cause bad luck to those humans unfortunate enough to get close to him or get stalked by him...what if that's whats so terrible about those shadow ghosts? They just give you a really, really bad case of bad luck?"

"That might be right," Tucker murmured in thought. "Sounds plausible. But there's only one way to find out," he grinned suddenly.

"Time to find Johnny 13!"

* * *

Finding Johnny 13 had proved to be more difficult than the two boys had anticipated. While Tucker searched on the ground, Danny took the air and scanned below thoroughly; hoping to spot the flirtatious ghost somewhere.

He went to all the major, usual, hang-out spots in the city but he still found no trace of the ghost. He had been on the verge of giving up and making his own solution (by going to the Ghost Zone and shaking out the answers from a random ghost) when he heard a group of girls squeal, followed by the roar of a motorcycle.

Danny smiled.

That sounded like Johnny 13 alright – if the ghostly howls that followed after, unnoticeable by the human ear, meant anything.

"Johnny!" Danny called out, causing a ripple of murmurs between the group girls when they caught sight of him. "I need to talk to you! It's urgent!"

"Hello?" Johnny hissed at him. "Can't you see I'm _busy _here?" He motioned to the busty blonde with a waggle of his brows.

"I know and I'm sorry but I seriously _need _to talk to you!" Danny replied, rolling his eyes when he saw Johnny sigh exaggeratedly and sweet talk the girls a bit more before, looking reluctant, he shooed the girls away to talk to the halfa.

"This better be good, DP, or else I'll sick Shadow on you," Johnny scowled, crossing his arms and waiting for the boy to speak his requests.

"Funny, it actually relates to Shadow..." Danny trailed off, as Johnny eyed him suspiciously.

"Alright, what about him?"

"How did you meet Shadow?" he decided to ask, knowing there would be no other way to really start this conversation that wouldn't include him leaving him hanging or just not answering his questions.

"Well, it happened like twenty years ago," he began, thoughtfully. "Kitty and I got in a fight and I left the house 'cause I just couldn't _stand _her nagging," he rolled his eyes. "I swear, all she talks about is how much I don't care about her and how I'm never home and how—!"

"Johnny!" Danny reminded.

"Oh, right...anyway, I was cruising through the Ghost Zone, ya' know, looking cool as always," he snapped the collar on his coat up arrogantly. Danny rolled his eyes. "And then I see this weird black blob thing. So, like the curious person I am, I go and check it out and turns out to be this shadow-like thing," Johnny continued, with a small smile. "Shadow looked a little washed out though...it was weird, he looked gray, almost."

"Gray?" Danny blinked.

"Yeah, turned out that it was because he was sick or something," Johnny shrugged. "Dunno', he got better once I took him home. Kitty wanted to kick him out though, that bit—!"

"So you didn't even care what he was?" Danny asked, with a risen brow. "What if Shadow turned out be some weird, out of control, blob monster who eats ghosts or something?" he joked, but Johnny had grown severe.

It was the most serious Danny had ever seen him. He leaned over the handles of his bike, saying very lowly: "What's the real point of this conversation, halfa?"

Danny's smile fell off his face. "A friend of mine disappeared a couple of days ago and I think those shadow-things everyone in the Ghost Zone don't want to talk about took her!"

Johnny frowned. "Whoa, sucks man...good luck with that!" He leaned back and was about to rev his motorcycle when Danny placed a hand on it, keeping it grounded as Johnny tried to lift off to no avail.

"Wait just one second, Johnny!" Danny grabbed the handles with both hands and leaned over them, shouting: "Why does everyone refuse to speak about them? What the heck is so dangerous about them that has everyone peeing their pants?"

Johnny gravely looked at Danny, shaking his head. "No, man, sorry. That's just something...something we can't bring up to random people, you know?"

"You're dead!" Danny cried. "What do you care?"

Johnny was silent for a moment. Then he said: "Those shadow things...no one talks about them because of what they could do."

"What...what _could_ they do?" he asked, hesitantly.

"They're the only known specie of ghost," Johnny began, slowly, "that eat human souls and ghosts alike for supplement."

Danny froze.

"You mean—!"

"HAHA! I GOT'CHA!" Tucker landed on top of Johnny, toppling him off his bike. He held a little hand-held device in his hand, his glasses askew on the bridge of his nose as he pointed to Johnny, who glared at him for pushing him off his ride. "Now time to contact Dan—oh! Danny! There you are! I found Johnny 13!" he beamed triumphantly.

Danny gazed at the ground, concealing his wide, fearful, eyes. "Tucker..."

"Yeah, buddy?"

"We have to go now," Danny said, voice edging on hysteria. "We have to save Sam _now_!"

"What?" Tucker stood up, as Johnny grumbled and floated up; picking his fallen motorcycle while he was at it as well. "What are you talkin' about, Danny? What's the hurry?"

"Those shadow things!" he shouted, anxiously. "The reason they're so feared is because they...they _eat _human souls and ghosts!"

Tucker paled. "Human souls? Ghosts? What, you mean to say we're _both_ on their menus!" Tucker motioned to Johnny and himself.

"Yes!" Danny hissed, exasperatedly. "And we have to go now before it's too late—!"

"No one's been able to locate them manually," Johnny interrupted, flatly. "And no one _wants _to, either, so if you both excuse me, I have a date with Kitty I have to get to—!"

"Can we borrow Shadow?" Danny blurted, causing Johnny to splutter.

"Wh-what!" he gasped. "You want to _borrow_ Shadow to track down those freaky things? No! Oh, no, I am _not _risking Shadow's safety just 'cause your girlfriend got herself kidnapped!"

"Please!" Danny begged. "We have to get her back and Shadow's probably the closest thing we have to searching for them successfully! He'll be able to track them down and...and isn't he one of them himself?" Danny added, unsurely.

"Shadow? One of those _things_?" Johnny echoed, offended. "How could you even put him on the same level with those freaks?"

"Okay, so maybe he's not," Danny took back hastily. "But we need _something_ that's able to track them down and didn't you brag about Shadow having master tracking skills one day?"

"...Yeah, your point?" Johnny asked, suspiciously.

"My point is—!"

"We just need to borrow Shadow for a little while, Johnny," Tucker cut in smoothly. "We'll give you something in return if you agree."

"We will?" Danny asked, confused.

"Yes, we _will_," Tucker leaned over to him, whispering: "Leave this to me, man!" He straightened and walked closer to Johnny, who braced himself and tightened his grip around the handles of his bike. "How about, in exchange for using Shadow for a couple of hours, we give you free reign...to all the girls you wanna' flirt with!" Tucker ended, with a suggestive waggle of his brows.

"_What? _Tucker!" Danny gawked incredulously at the man who merely waved him off.

"All the girls...I want?" Johnny repeated, wondrously.

"Yeah, and we'll, uh...give Kitty a five-day vacation to the best places to relax in in the Ghost Zone?" he cleared his throat, ignoring the way Danny let his hand run down his face at the question-sounding statement.

"You mean, Madam Skeleton's?" Johnny asked, hopefully.

Tucker blinked. "Er, yeah her!"

"Done deal, man!" Johnny hooted, clapping his hand on Tucker's back with a force that made the man wheeze. "Alright, I'll call him over right now!" Johnny whistled, a whistle so loud that Tucker didn't hear it although Danny cringed and plugged his ears.

A streak of black flashed by him and both Danny and Tucker turned to see Shadow land by Johnny faithfully, growling at the two usual interlopers in their schemes.

"Alright, boy, you're going to go with them and take them to the Shadow Dwellers lair," Johnny commanded casually, causing Shadow to pause his growling and look up at him in confusion. "What're you waiting for? Go and take them!" He pointed to them.

Shadow grumbled, giving his master one last mean glare before shuffling over to the two men, crossing his arms and huffing.

"Soo..." Tucker began. "That's it?"

"Yep," Johnny shrugged. His voice grew serious: "You better bring him back to me alive, though. If I find out something happened to him..." He revved his bike, glowing green eyes growing sinister with the implications he didn't hesitate to convey.

"Don't worry, Johnny," Danny assured. "We won't let anything happen to Shadow."

"You better!" He lifted off into the sky without another word, disappearing from their view.

"We better get going," Tucker reminded Danny quietly. "Alright, Shadow, lets go!" He crossed by Shadow and, almost immediately, tripped over a crack in the sidewalk and face-planted on the ground.

"...Maybe I should've reminded you Shadow that is sort of like a bad luck charm for humans?" Danny laughed nervously, as his friend propped himself on his forearms and sighed heavily.

"_Noo,_" he rolled his eyes, sarcastically. "You think?"

Shadow just snickered.

* * *

Sam drew her legs in, eyes still shut and heart still racing in her chest. The giant eye that had appeared had caused a cold chill to run down her spine and, being completely at its mercy without her usual arsenal of weapons, she hadn't felt so weak than she did in that moment.

She didn't dare open her eyes, as she heard shifting and snickers; a cold shadow fall over her and consume her in a frosty blanket.

_Not real, not real, not real, _she chanted in her head, trying to concentrate on anything else but the creeping shadows that tried to undo her with their ghostly touches and echoing laughter. _Not real, not real, not real. _She wished Valerie were here, then perhaps she could project her fear onto her in the form of taunting and anger. _Not real, not real, not real. _Then perhaps she wouldn't be so scared or so needy to see Danny and hope...he could save her.

Her eyes flew open, staring into her arms as the shadows that surrounded her circled around slowly; like they had been doing for the past few hours now.

_I don't need Danny, _she thought, determinedly; despite the twinge of fear in her gut. _I can get myself out of here without his help. _She eyed the darker ring a few feet away and swallowed. _But...maybe I should wait for them to cool off first..._

Suddenly, she heard movement from across from her.

The slowly circling ring of shadows stopped dead and disappeared; retracting into its blind sea of ink black as sounds and thumps made themselves known.

Her fright kept climbing higher and higher with each frantic wiggle of the door knob she could now see ahead of her.

The shake of the knob stopped abruptly.

She held her breath.

The shadows all seemed to quiet; waiting.

She felt her breath hitch out of her throat as if someone had decked her in the stomach at the sight of Danny bursting through the creepily glowing door that would lead to another dimension and henceforth freedom. To her shock and confusion, Shadow twisted its way out from behind Danny, sharply gazing around like a well trained canine.

"D-Danny?" Sam blinked.

"Sam!" Danny sighed in relief, once he caught sight of her sitting lonesome ahead; under a beam of white light. "I'm so glad you're alright!"

Her brows creased in anger. "What the hell are you doing here?" She stood up, dusting herself. The darkness had become lighter, somehow. "How did you get here, anyway?"

"Uh, using him?" Danny pointed at Shadow, who waved back friendlily.

Sam glared. "And since when are _you _all cordial and nice?"

If Shadow could scowl, he'd be doing it right then and there.

"Anyway, that isn't important right now!" Danny waved off hastily. "What is is that you come with me and Shadow out of the Ghost Zone! We have to hurry up before—!"

"Before what?" she cut off, rudely. She crossed her arms expectantly.

"Before _it _comes back!" Danny finished, voice hushed.

"It?"

"Yes, it. That huge, weird, shadow thing that'll eventually eat you!" Danny explained, rather panicky. "You saw it before, right?"

Sam grew nervous. "Y-you mean that horrifying black blob is actually a shadow?"

"You know those shadow ghosts we encountered the last time we saw each other?" Danny reminded, causing Sam to nod. "Its them. Only, think of this one as the head honcho of the entire sect. Its this one that calls all the shots."

"Okay, I can get that," she started, trying to wrap her mind around this. "But what about the smaller ones? What do those do?"

"They...sorta collect people?" Danny answered, sheepishly.

"Collect...people?" Sam repeated, voice deadly calm. "How about you explain, oh-ghostly one."

"Er, you see, the reason why all the ghosts in the Ghost Zone are so freakin' terrified of these shadow ghosts is because they kind of have a bad habit of..."

"Of...?" she prompted.

He sighed, heavily. "They've got a bad habit of feeding off souls – dead _or _alive."

Sam froze. Her eyes flickered to Shadow, who was still vigilant beside Danny. "Wh-what about him? Isn't he like one of those shadows?"

"Who? Shadow?" Danny asked, pointing down at him. "Nah. He's either a totally different breed or he wasn't raised like that. Something tells me he just wasn't raised like that – Johnny 13 told me that he found him wondering the Ghost Zone all by himself so he became friends with him." Danny patted Shadow on the head, grinning when the amorphous blob contorted to his palm with a purr. "However...he _does _cause bad luck if you're not careful."

"Like I don't know _that_," Sam snorted, remembering all the times she'd encountered the black shadow and had something that could be considered bad luck happen right after the fight. "Alright, lets go." She began to walk to him when Danny caught something rise from the floor.

"Wait, Sam, no—!"

It was as if an alarm had gone off.

Sam froze as the walls peeled with black sheets of shadows. She tremulously stepped back, gasping when she felt something wrap around her wrist and tug her back roughly. A blast of green made the small shadow shriek and recede, a hiss sounding near her ear as she stumbled away from it, only to have more start to tangle her back into their nest of darkness.

"Danny!" Sam yelled, grimacing when a tendril cut through her skin a bit. More blasts of green exploded around her, causing an almost deafening screeching to boom from around her. She didn't know where it had come from, it seemed to come from _all around her_, but she did know that it was _not _happy.

She squeaked when she felt another shadow wrap around her midsection. But this shadow seemed different than the rest...

"Shadow!" Sam gasped, rolling her eyes when Johnny 13's pet winked at her and began to yank her toward Danny, who was floating above both of them and shooting green beams at the shadows – effectively keeping them at bay while Shadow rescued Sam.

"Hurry up, Shadow!" Danny shouted, shooting a black blob when it got too close to him. "I can't hold them of much long—whoa!" He cut himself in two to avoid a blow to his gut when one of the blobs morphed their tendrils into something resembling a spear.

"That was way too close," he muttered, putting himself back together both literally and mentally. He glanced down below him, to Sam and Shadow, who were nearing the door despite the shadows desperate attempts to keep her where she stood.

He took a deep breath, concentrated, and howled his ghostly wail; concentrating the wail into a certain spot and managing to make the shadows freeze where they were and shriek in pain.

Suddenly, what sounded like a hatch closing made everything quiet.

Danny listened closely, brows creasing in confusion, before his mouth fell open at the sudden bloodshot eye that appeared from before him, too close to him, glaring menacingly into his own eyes. He seemed kind of pitiful, floating there against a humongous eye that spoke volumes of the ass-kicking he was going to suffer if he didn't scram right then and there.

_The things I do for Sam, _he thought dryly. "Alright, just who the heck do you think you are?"

It snarled and Danny slowly inched back.

Its eye narrowed again.

"...Okay, plan B," he coughed to himself. "Can I please have Sam back? It's sorta important...you can have Shadow, though!" He bargained, pointing at the helping shadow who paused and looked up at him, glowering.

It screamed this time.

"OKAY! OKAY! SHUT UP!" Danny clapped his hands over his ears, cringing when the scream only became louder. "FINE! YOU CAN HAVE HER!"

"HEY!" Sam shouted from below.

Danny cast her an apologetic look, as the screaming abruptly ceased.

"Fine, if you won't take either choices," Danny started, voice growing equally menacing. "I guess I'll just have to take her by force. She might be tasty but, erm...uh, you're gonna' have to skip this meal!" he finished hastily, not trusting himself with cracking a joke since they all seemed rather inappropriate. It seemed to late for that regardless. His cheeks tinted red at Dan's howling laughter in his head.

Sam resisted the urge to roll her eyes, a small smile on her face. "That was _so_ lame..."

Shadow grunted in agreement.

The large eye was not amused. The shadow eye suddenly disappeared.

Danny blinked. "Well, that was easy."

He spoke too soon. Suddenly, a vortex-like hole appeared from the center of where the eye had once been. Danny gasped when he felt himself get dragged in against his will – no matter how much he fought against the pull.

He could hear Dan frantically telling him to fall back: the monster meant business now.

Danny flung himself back and, once he hit the frame of the dimensional door, hooked his foot under the top frame to keep him grounded. He grit his teeth, as he struggled to bend down and properly grab the frame with his blisteringly cold fingers.

"Shadow, don't you _dare _let go of Sam!" Danny shouted, a threat veiled in the words.

Shadow merely whimpered, trying very hard to keep Sam from being lifted off the ground and sucked into the tunnel of nothingness. Despite herself, Sam looked behind her and felt her eyes bulge. That vortex was massive and allowed absolutely zero visual on what lay inside...

She could only guess, as she swallowed her heart and sunk her sharp nails into the floor. She tried to pull herself up, or at least keep herself still, but it was hard when the sucking pull behind her was almost impossible to break free from.

Fear clawed its way up her throat, as she felt herself slowly slip farther and farther away from the door. But she had to make it – she couldn't just let all that training go to waste! – so she forced herself forward; digging the tips of her shoes into the smooth surface and forcing herself to climb up and away from the vortex.

Suddenly, she heard Shadow howl in what seemed to be pain and she felt his hold on her release.

Her blood ran cold as she screamed and pushed forward, her forefinger just barely grabbing the edge of the door frame. She strangled out another scream as her finger popped from her weight. She managed to flash her other hand to the frame and clutch it for sheer life but without the aid of Shadow, holding on seemed harder and harder the more time ticked.

"Take my hand!" Danny's voice came from above her.

Sam cracked on eye open to see Danny's panicked eyes lock with her own. Her hands tightened around the frame of the door. She ground her teeth and forced: "I can take care of myself!" She heaved herself forward, tendons jumping under her skin. "I don't need your help!"

The sucking, seemingly, grew worse and she screamed when it just very nearly made her lose her grip and fly back into the endless dark.

"SAM!" Danny shouted, eye shut to keep his anger under wraps. "This isn't the time to be remembering the past! Just _grab my hand!_"

"I can save _myself_!" Sam spat, sucking in a sharp breath when she suddenly felt one of the shadows grab her foot. It twisted itself around her ankle, pulling her deeper and deeper into the swirling vortex of black that threatened to pull her into oblivion.

"Sam, take my hand!" Danny yelled. His hand was grabbing onto the door frame of the dimension. If he could just adjust his grip on it, then he could properly save her: whether she wanted it or not. But right now he needed her cooperation. Danny was no fool; the father in she was being dragged, every inch she was being pulled, meant another second he couldn't save her.

And the seconds were ticking.

"I-I can...D..Danny," Sam shut her eyes, hands clawing the ground when she felt another one of the black tendrils weave around her other foot. They gave a might tug that was stopped by her digging her fingers into the floor. "_Danny!_"

"Take my hand!" Danny outstretched his hand the farthest he could go. "Sam, just take my hand!"

"I can't reach it!" she cried.

Danny took a risk and let himself get dragged further into the vortex. He could see it – they were so close – their fingertips almost _brushed_...

"Please, Sam," he pleaded, jewel eyes boring into her own. This would resolve their problems; this last piece of trust was the only way they were going to rebuild the friendship he had inadvertently tarnished under Freakshow's control. "Trust me."

Sam searchingly looked into his eyes. He could see the uncertainty and fear in her violet eyes. She was scared of not only being sucked into a pit of darkness but putting herself in the position of being hurt again. He knew he had hurt her; the dislike and contempt she expressed was enough. But he wouldn't slip up again.

He refused to cause her pain again.

"Trust me," he breathed again.

"I-I trust you!" She reached forward, teeth grinding when she felt the creatures tug her back. But her hand gripped his own and never let go. Danny grunted as he pulled her to him, trying to make the creatures let go of her foot. It was pointless, however: they were well-wrapped around her ankle.

_Oh, no, _Danny thought, fear clutching his sides. _If they don't let go then... _He nearly bit his tongue – his fingers were slipping! He could feel the doorway start to slowly stray farther from his grasp the more suction the vortex ahead expressed.

He needed to get her out.

He needed to _do_ something!

Suddenly, he felt something wrap around his midsection. Danny snapped his head down to see black entangle him, pull him back out of the doorway. He was stumped for a moment before it all came back to him.

_SHADOW! _He would kiss the ghost if he wasn't stuck in a life-threatening situation!

"PULL!"

_...Tucker? _

"PULL, MY FAITHFUL MINION, PULL!"

Danny nearly laughed, as he tightened his grip on Sam and felt Shadow tug him out of the doorway. He flashed his eyes to her, to her wide and surprised ones, and gave a reassuring grin. When Shadow had pulled them more or less through the doorway, Danny had enough nerve to let go of the door—

_Oh, CRAP!_

"DANNY!"

"SORRY! MY BAD!"

They were back to square one now...

"Shadow, don't let go no matter what, okay?" Danny shouted over his shoulder. The ghost gave a grunt he barely heard as he heaved himself forward and reached for Sam's other hand. Sam noticed this and automatically reached forward, fingertips fleeting his own before his hand encased her's. He fixed his grip on her wrist and took a deep breath before pulling to him with all his might.

"OUCH! HEY! WATCH IT! YOU'RE GOING TO PULL MY SHOULDER OUT!"

"S-sorry!"

"Danny!" Tucker's voice sounded from behind him. It sounded rough and choppy so Danny assumed his parents still hadn't fixed the loudspeaker in the Specter Speeder. "Any day now would be nice!"

"I'm trying!" Danny shouted back, annoyed. "This is harder than it looks, you know!"

_I have to get Sam out! I have to. How can I save her? Damn I-I...don't... know what to do. _It dawned to him suddenly, the severity of the situation. He could faintly hear Sam's soft cries as her arms ached from the pressure. It pained him that he couldn't do anything but it was so clear to him now...he couldn't do a single thing.

_She can't...just disappear, _he thought numbly. He tightened his grip on her wrists. _She can't_.

_**Hey, kid, are you for real?**_

_D-Dan? _

There was a resigned sigh that echoed through his mind, as his voice blotted out he commotion around him. _**Think. The dork is in the Specter Speeder, right? **_Dan didn't give Danny a chance to respond. _**That means that he's got a crapload of weapons at his disposal, right? Right. And one of those weapons just HAPPENS to be a certain GOO that acts like a freakin' ghost repellant.**_

It was like a brick being thrown in his face.

_Ooh..._

_**Yeah, 'oh'. Now go save her, you dumb halfa!**_

_Haha, you just insulted yourself! _Without heeding his retort, Danny shouted: "TUCK! I NEED YOU TO ACTIVATE THE FENTON FOAM!"

"Fenton—_what?_"

"Fenton Foam!" Danny repeated, grunting when he felt Sam get pulled deeper into the tunnel. "There should be a button with bubbles on it! Press it _now_!"

"Tucker!" Sam urged, gritting her teeth against the intense pull.

"Er—bubbles—right!" There was few seconds of silence, followed by a splurge of something nasty that splashed over him and caused him mild irritation. His eyes widened when he heard Shadow howl in pain and nearly let go. Danny let go of one of Sam's hands and gripped the doorway once more as Shadow recoiled from the sticky substance. However, he had not been the only one affected.

He heard distinct howls of pain come from deeper into the doorway and Danny pulled with all his might once he noticed the shadows had let go of Sam; a wash of relief flooding his chest when he felt the girl crash into his chest. He quickly shoved her out of the doorway, leaving the hisses and growls and howls behind him as he pushed the weak tendrils of Shadow out and slammed the door behind him.

He inhaled a shuddering breath. "Okay, that was—!"

"D-Danny!"

"Oh, crap," Danny quickly hovered down and grabbed Sam before she sunk deeper into the empty abyss of the Ghost Zone. He grimaced when he saw a doorway open up from below her, giving view to something rather creepy as his sharp eyes caught sight of something massive swimming around inside...

He wrapped an arm around her waist and he floated upward, toward the Specter Speeder which housed a rather smug-looking Tucker.

"Well?"

"Well, what?" Sam snapped.

"Don't you think I deserve a 'thank you, all-mighty Tucker'?"

Sam snorted. "If it weren't for Danny, I'd be a thousand miles in some dark pit by now."

Tucker frowned. "Not the answer I was expecting but alright."

"Guys," Danny interrupted, sounding tuckered out. "Can we just go now? I'm hungry and I think Johnny 13 is gonna' _haunt _me for nearly killing his pet." Danny twisted his lower body to face Shadow, who whimpered by the Specter Speeder and seemed to lick its wounds. It was still covered in the goo, which made it shrivel deeper into itself as it tried to shake off the no doubt burning sensation.

Even he was starting to feel a little uncomfortable with the goo.

_Well, mom and dad upgraded, _he thought dryly, making Sam intangible and walking through the metal walls of the vehicle. He placed her down gently, making her tangible immediately before heading back out and to Shadow, where he scraped the goo off of his shadowy form as best he could.

Tucker watched the scene for a moment, shaking his head when Danny yelped and took cover when Shadow shook himself of the goo.

"So, you guys friends now?"

Sam picked off bits of the green goo off her body. She briefly glanced at Tucker, who was smiling good naturedly at her. Her eyes strayed to Danny, who had his hands on his hips and was shouting something at Shadow, who looked annoyed and firmly ignored him and continued to shake himself of the offending goo.

She smiled softly. "I think...we can be friends again."

Tucker released the breath he had been holding. "Good. Because do you _know_ how hard it is on me to see two of my best friends fighting? I mean, you guys fight worse than a married couple! Oh, jeez, I can see the headlines already: Mysterious Ghost Marries Gothic Aficionado! And where would that leave me? Yeah, friend to a bunch of freaks! You are soo lucky I already have a girlfriend or else I'd drop you two like hot tamales!" he ranted.

Sam rolled her eyes, cheeks growing pink at the thought of marriage, and laughed out: "Tuck, shut up and drive!"

"Hey, that's a song you know."

"Tucker!"

"Driving!"

* * *

_**A/N: **_Oh! It's done! I finished! The next chapter is the _real _last chapter but this is technically the end. Holy crap this was so _hard _to dish out! I spent hours mulling over how to end the chapter and it finally came to me in the form of a song! XD

I hope the length of this chapter made up for my late update.

_Scarlett._


	14. Epilogue

**Cirque Berserk  
by. **_Poisoned Scarlet_

_._

_._

_._

**Epilogue**

.

.

.

Things were going back to normal.

Slowly but steadily.

With the fact that Lydia, technically Danny's co-worker, tried her best to keep Sam away from Danny, sometimes going as far as creating false emergencies in which Danny would fly off and leave her, most things had begun to slowly fall into a cycle they could all be content with.

Tucker watched his best friends, recently reconciled due to the life-threatening situation involving malignant shadows, try their best to converse. There would be times when Danny would flinch and look away for a second, trying to regain the self-control Tucker knew his other half, whom was rightfully dubbed Dan, was trying to steal from him.

At first Tucker had been puzzled as to why Dan helped Danny out with saving Sam.

To him, it had been a perfectly good situation to get rid of her, all things considered. She could have gotten sucked up into the vortex of doom and every one would go back to living their lives after some mourning... but, apparently, according to what Dan had told Danny when he sincerely thanked him for his quick thinking, if he had let this happen, Danny would have wrecked havoc on him.

"_He said my human self would devour my ghost self and he'd end up stuck in my head as a prisoner or something." Danny shrugged, as the two boys waited for the girls to came out of the Nasty Burger. "I have no idea how that works but Dan sounded pretty shaky about it."_

"_No kidding." Tucker took a long drink of his coke. "It sounds like you'd totally crush him!"_

"_Yeah, he mentioned something like that." Danny agreed, thoughtfully. "I wonder if I could do that willingly...maybe then I'd be able to get rid of him!"_

"_Or you could use your parents totally-new, totally-awesome, Ghost Unifier 3000!" Tucker chirped, ignoring his bewildered face. "Paranormally proven to unify ghosts and humans to form one single, uniform, being!"_

"_Tuck... we already ARE one single being!"_

"_Nooo, I meant Dan would go back to being dormant since it'd unify your ghost and human self once more, causing them to work in harmony like before! Geez, learn to listen! No wonder you didn't get into college!"_

_Tucker ducked a swing from his friend, laughingly adding: "But you DID make thousands off that circus!"_

"_Still am." Danny grinned. His grin shrunk to a troubled frown. "Hey, Tuck?" _

"_Yeah?"_

"_Have you ever wondered how my parents build everything we need right in the nick of time?"_

"_I always thought it was because they just had good timing that way."_

"_Very scientific, Tuck. I can see how YOU got into college..."_

"_What—hey, what? I was being serious! Dannnyyyy!"_

They had yet to try that Ghost Unifier 3000 on Danny since it was fairly difficult to lull Dan into a false sense of security – Dan tended to overload Danny whenever they even got CLOSE to the machine that was sure to return everything back to normal – for real this time.

Sam was still brainstorming ways to get Danny close to the machine without Dan noticing.

So far they were coming up with blanks but Tucker had a feeling the only way would include dressing up the machine in a ridiculous outfit and telling Danny it was a cotton candy maker...

What?

_He_ thought it would work...

But the rest – basically composed of Sam, Sam, Sam... and, surprise! Sam – were pretty hard on the idea and automatically rejected it. Tucker could see nothing else but _that _working in the end, and thus they (Sam...) would have to finally agree that his ideas, however ridiculous they sounded at times, weren't all mindless.

"TUCKER!"

"WHAA!" He nearly fell off his chair, directing bewildered eyes to a very annoyed Sam.

"I've been calling you for the past five minutes now!" She growled, narrowing her eyes at him. "What the heck were you thinking about so deeply that you didn't hear me?"

"Yeah, it must've been pretty important." Danny added, popping up behind Sam. At his incredulous look, Danny grinned and waved. "Hi Tuck."

"What the heck are you two doing in my room?" He exclaimed, surprised. "And how the heck did you guys get in my house in the first place!"

Sam rose an unimpressed brow. "Hello, Danny's a ghost, remember...?"

"Oh." Tucker laughed, nervously. He had forgotten about the perks of having a halfa as a best friend. "Right." He fixed his skewed glasses, asking: "Alright, you got my attention. What's up, Sam?"

"I figured out the equation." Sam smirked, when Tuck's eyes flashed with knowing. Danny, however, eyed Sam weirdly. "All we have to do is follow it by the book."

"Book, huh?" Tucker bounced over to his bookcase, taking out a Calculus textbook. "Will we need... the book _cover_?" He pointed to the stretchy material encasing his textbook, raising a sly brow at her.

Sam breathed in deeply.

This was annoying.

She didn't want to admit it but...

"Yes. We're gonna' need a lot of book covers..." She mumbled, wishing she had some good dirt on Tucker at the moment...

"HAH! SUCCESS!" Tucker hooted smugly, pumping a fist in the air.

"Hey, what're you guys talking about over there?" Danny frowned, uneasy about being left out; especially since their talk about equations and textbooks was highly offensive to him.

Another thing that hadn't changed over the course of five years: his hatred towards math.

But nearly everyone already knew that...

"Oh, nothing, Danny!" Sam patted his arm as she walked out, smiling when he followed her out automatically. Tucker stayed behind, mumbling to himself about the new 'project' he had now. "Nothing at all..."

* * *

_Whoosh_

The white sheet fell dramatically, revealing a rather odd machine.

"What... is it?" Danny stared at the machine in front of him, eying the strange shape of it. It was tall and tube-like and he could barely discern what seemed to be like a _laser_ from all the fluff and bulk his friends had seemingly dressed the machine in.

Dan made a rude comment but Danny blocked him out in favour of listening to his friends explanation.

"This, Danny," Sam began, pushing him encouragingly closer to the machine. The next words sounded forced through clenched teeth: "...is a—cotton candy machine!"

Tucker just grinned, smugly.

Danny had a feeling Sam wasn't too happy about this 'cotton candy machine' by the way her smile twitched and she sent periodic glares at Tucker, who merely widened his grin with every glare shot his way.

"Cotton candy machine?" Danny repeated, suspiciously.

Both friends held their breathes.

If he believed it, they were golden.

If he didn't...

Finding another way to get him _this_ close to the machine would be a long and difficult journey...

Danny, however, grinned. "Sweet!"

Sam and Tucker breathed out in relief.

Good; his cluelessness had kicked in just in the nick of time.

Now only one thing was left...

"Okay, Danny, stand right here and don't move!" Sam instructed, pushing him onto a very plain red X on the floor. Danny eyed the X, unsure of why it was there in the first place, and began to feel nervous. He never had to stand on letters to get a cone of cotton candy before...

"Uh, guys?"

"Tucker, are you ready?" Sam hissed, low enough for Danny to remain unaware. She watched as her friend typed in a few things into the built-in keyboard in the back; the small screen above it displaying a roll of information that Sam had no idea how to even _begin_ to read_. _"Tuck! Hurry up, before he catches on!"

"I'm going! I'm going!" Tucker whispered back, filling in a few more blanks before finally slamming his finger on the enter key. "Done!"

"What's done?" Danny asked, narrowing his eyes. His posture straightened, his senses heightening with the uneasiness that stabbed in his gut. "Sam, Tucker?"

"Your cotton candy is done." Sam smirked, tearing off the top sheet to reveal a giant laser beam.

Danny barely had time to register what was _really _going on before a bright ray of white enveloped his vision and he felt something akin to being torn apart and being torn together once more. The excruciating pain, made audible by his scream, was sure to travel down the lonely streets of his block for miles – he was glad his parents had gone grocery shopping and his sister would not be home but off in the mall with her friends for a few more hours.

The agonized scream was nearly enough to make Sam turn off the machine but Tucker assured her it would be no painless feat – he had to be under the beam for approximately thirty seconds or risk having either Dan being in total control or simply not having it work at all and making them go back to square one.

Tucker hoped the machine would work.

Neither option sounded pleasant, in his ears.

"There! Thirty seconds have passed!" Sam anxiously told Tucker, who shook his head.

Abruptly, the beam ceased, and Danny crumpled to the floor.

"_Now_ thirty seconds have passed." He said, although it went unheard as Sam had rushed to Danny's side, rolling him on his back and placing a tender hand on his pale cheek. His eyes were closed and Sam had the terrifying thought that somehow, someway, the machine had failed to return him to normal and had somehow managed to split his ghost self out of his human body—!

Blue eyes clashed with violet and Sam breathed in relief, her tense shoulders relaxing.

He was fine.

"Sam...?"

And, thankfully, coherent.

"Danny?" Sam asked, hesitantly. "How are you feeling?"

"Like I got hit on the head with a jackhammer." He humored her, further relaxing her.

Danny making lame jokes was a good sign.

"Hey, dude, you alright down there?" Tucker squatted beside Sam, observing his slightly disoriented gazing around for anything that appeared unnatural.

Danny blinked a few times before finally re-focusing his scrambled thoughts. The blotches in his vision had yet to erase but that would soon disappear with time, as he forced himself up and rested against Sam, who patted his back soothingly.

"Yeah, I'm fine, Tuck." Danny grunted, shaking his head. "What _was_ that?"

"Ghost Unifier 3000." They answered in unison, making Danny chuckle.

"Yeah, I figured you'd try to disguise it as something else."

Sam eyed him. "... Did you, really?"

Danny shifted his eyes away sheepishly. "... Kind of..."

"He didn't." Tucker deadpanned, standing up and jerking a proud thumb at himself. "Now that that's all done and over with, I believe _you two _owe me a big, gushy, _thank you Tucker_!" He grinned, crossing his arms over his chest. "I'm waiting."

"For _what_?" Sam squawked, mouth twisted in annoyance.

"Hello? _I _was the one who came up with the cotton candy idea, the one _you_ rejected because _you_ thought drugging Danny would work better, _remember_?" Tucker taunted her, making her seethe as Danny nervously looked between them.

"It _would _have worked if you hadn't basically given it away to Danny!"

"Hey, a dude has a right to know if he's gonna' get slipped a roofie—!"

"It wasn't a roofie, you idiot, it was a highly powerful sedative—!"

"Uh huh, _sedative... pfft..._"

"IT WAS—!"

"GUYS!" Danny shouted, shutting them up. He grinned. "Good news: I can't hear Dan anymore!"

Sam visibly brightened. "Do you really think he went back to being dormant?"

"I don't know. It's a possibility. But I can't hear him anymore – and I don't feel like I'm about to lose control or something!" Danny assured, fisting his hand experimentally. "I think I'm back to normal!"

"Only one way to find out!" Tucker stated, pushing Sam up near his face without a seconds waste.

Her face flushed and he felt his breath catch in his throat, as he caught her at the last second. Their noses bumped, and their hearts stuttering in their ears as they stared into each others eyes for a long moment before Tucker pulled Sam back by the collar of her shirt and nodded to himself firmly.

"Yep. Dan would've been nagging at you by now, right? Close proximity with Sam is a big no-no."

Danny shook himself from the daze, his face feeling hot, and nodded jerkily. "Uh huh. Definitely. I don't hear anything in my head right now, too..."

"Then it worked!" Sam squealed, bringing him into an excited hug. "You're back to normal!"

"Y-yeah..." He smiled slightly, resting a hand tentatively on the small of her back. His eyes flashed up to Tucker, who waggled his brows knowingly in his direction, and he had been on the verge of sending him a nasty look when his ghost sense went off.

"Ghost!" Danny alerted, snapping his head westbound to where he felt the unearthly presence.

Tucker smirked. "Well, then, let's go catch it!"

Sam pulled back, also smiling. She stood up and held a hand out to Danny, her smile contagious as he soon began to smile as well.

"Well then, what're we waiting for?" Sam started, her lips curling into a smirk. "I can finally catch up with you, Danny." She activated her suit, watching him through the dark haze that was her mask.

Danny grinned, wasting no time transforming into his alter ego. He was pleased to see there were no unsightly side-effects – and Dan's harsh voice had been put on a permanent mute.

"Let's go kick some ghost butt!" He shouted, leading the way to where he sensed the ghost was wrecking havoc.

Normalcy was slowly dominating their lives...

Tucker thought they'd be alright for the next few dozen years – as long as that Lydia chick didn't try anything remotely diabolical, that is...

* * *

**A/N: **Son of a bitch. That was a long time I took to update, huh? I'm sorry you guys - I had meant to put in an epilogue all along even if I had set the story to completed. It just took me a long while since this chapter had been unwritten. The first couple of chapters of this story had been previously written, hence the quick updates.

I hope you all enjoyed this story! :D

_Scarlett._


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